_ 124 
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1920 
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REPORT 



^•~! A t 



H 



XI- ^ 
Special 

Legislative Committee 

on Education 



A8 Authorized by 

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21 

By the Forty -third Session of the Legislature 
of California 




'Q'irvS^ California State Printing Office 

SACRAMENTO, 1920 




Qass. 
Book. 



iLJ_24i- 



^ £.0 



1 

REPORT 



Special 

Legislative Committee 

on Education 



'<{ I 



As Authorized by 

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21 

By the Forty-third Session of the Legislature 
of Culifornia 




California State J^rintinc Office 

j. m. cremin, superintendent 

sacramento, 1920 



77()y- 






t> 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

nsrEfVED 

JAN251921 

DOCUMENTS DtVJSION 



A') 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



o^ 



INTRODUCTION TO THE KKl'ORT, BY THE COMMITFEE 1 ^'^^"5 

Chapter I. 
STATE EDUCATIONAL OlUiANIZ.VTION H 

California Development Before 1913. — Recent American Practice and Tlu'- 
ory.— Powers and Duties of the State Board of Education.— I'roper Functions 

for a State Board of Education. — Tlie California Development Since 1913. 

Further Lack of Good Educational Organization. — Reasons for Such La( k of 
Educational Organization.— Desirable Educational Reorganization in This 
State. — An Adequate State Department of Education. — Principles TTnderlying 
State Educational Control.— 8unnnai-y of Findings and Recommendations. 

Chapter II. 

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

Early California Development. — Tendencits in Our American States. The 

Situation in California. — A Fundamental Reorganization Needed. — The Con- 
solidation of Schools.— A County-Unit Plan of Organization.— General Con- 
trol.— Business and Clerical Control.— Educational Control.— Function of the 
Superintendent of Schools.— Combination of Counties trr Counties and Cities.— 
How to Institute Such a Reorganization. — Summary of Findings and Rec- 
ommendations. 

Chapter III. 

THE PROBLEM OF TEACHER TRAINING ,-3 

The California Development.— The Recent Crisis in Teacher-Training — 
Pay of Normal School Instructors.— Recent Studies of the Problem.— R-asons 
and Remedies.— The Creation of Teachers Colleges.— Normal School Control 
and Development in California.— Ultimate Teachers' College Control.— The 
Examination and Certification of Teachers.— Better Plan for the Certification 
of Teachers Needed. — Summary of Findings and Recommendations. 

Chapter IV. 

HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE ,;7 

Our High School Development.— Special Features of Our High School 
Development.— Secondary School Needs for the Future.— Junior Colle-o 
Development in California.— The New Interest in Higher Education —A Pro- 
gram for California Development.— Advantages of Such a Plan.— Control of 
Such Development.— State Aid for and Support of Junior College Work.— 
Summary of Findings and Reconmiendations. 

Chapter V. 
A BETTER EQUALIZATION OF FUNDS 34 

I. Possible County-Unit Economies S4 

II. Apportionment of the Elementary School Fund Sy 

III. Apportionment of High School Fund 90 

IV. Summary of Findings and Recommendations 94 

Appendix. 

SUMMARY OF NEEDED LEGISLATION. nr 

. . "'J 

1. Constitutional Amendments. 
II. New or Revised Laws. 



LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES. 



I. Charts and Maps. 

PAGE 

Fig. 1. Index Numbers of States at Four Periods S 

Fig-. 2. Map: How Chief State School Officer is Obtained 10 

Fig. 3. Chart : The Present Double-IIeaded State Educational Organization 

in California IS 

Fig. 4. Chart : Showing the Present Lack of Organization and Unified Plan in 

the Handling of the Educational Functions in California 21 

Fig. 5. Chart : A Reorganized and Unified State Department of Education 

for this State 25 

Fig. 6. Map : Administrative Unit for Schools Used by our American States 35 

Fig. 7. Chart : Present Triple-Headed County Educational Organization and 

Control in California c9 

Fig. 8. Map: Showing San Mateo County Before Reoi-ganization 42 

Fig. 9. Map: Showing San Mateo County After Reorganization 43 

Fig. 10. Map : Showing How Chief County Educational Officer is Secured in 

Our American States 4(.» 

Fig. 11. Chart : Proper County-Unit Educational Organization 4S 

Fig. 12. Map : Showing Location of State Normal Schools and the Percentage 

of Trained Teachers in the Counties of California 54 

Fig. 13. Map : Showing High School Development in California by 1920 68 

Fig. 14. Chart : Actual and Estimated Growth in High School Enrollment in 

Calif oi'uia 70 

Fig. 15. Chart : Actual and Estimated Future Growth of the Colleges at 

Berkeley 75 

Fig. 16. Chart: Showing Proposed Reorganization of Our School System 77 

II. Statistical Tables. 

Table I. Showing the Number of Small Schools in each County in tht> State__ 37 

Table II. Increase in College Enrollment 74 

Table III. Showing Results of County-Reorganization Studies in California 86 

Table IV. Showing Relation of Teachers Allowed to Teachers Employed, by 

Counties 88 

Table V. Apportionment of High School Funds, Present Plan 92 

Table VI. Apportionment of High School Funds, Revised Plan 93 



INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORT. 



To the Fort ij-fou rill Session of the 
Legislature of California. 

The report whieli follows is the report of the Special Legislative 
Committee provided for by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21, 
approved by both houses of the Forty-third session (1919) of the 
Legislature of California, and which read as follows: 

Chapter 49. 
Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21 — Relative to a legislative investigation of the 
problem of meeting the needs of and furnishing support for the schools and 
educational institutions of the state. 

[Filed with Secretary of State April 20, 1919.] 

Whereas, The cost of maintenance of the educational system of this state forms 
the greater part of the public expense and is increasing year by year ; and 

Whkreas, The increased attendance at elementary schools and other institutions 
of learning presents to the people of the state a constant problem of increased 
support and ever broadening educational demands ; and 

Whereas, It is the policy of this state that schools and the means of education 
shall be encouraged, and is the desire of the citizens to afford to the children and 
young people of the state educational facilities of the highest order; and 

Whereas, It is desirable that a sound, permanent and comprehensive system shall 
be devised and established by which the schools and other educational institutions of 
the state may be conducted ; now, therefore, be it 

Resolved hy the Senate, the Assemhhj concurring. That three members of the 
Senate shall be appointed by the President of the Senate and three members of the 
Assembly by the Speaker of the Assembly, who shall constitute a committee, whose 
duty it shtill be to investigate the matters contained in these resolutions, and the 
plan of education in this state and the relations of schools, high schools, junior 
colleges, normal schools, technical schools, colleges and universities, and the cost of 
education, and to report their findings in full to the forty-fourth session of the 
Legislature, and to make such recommendations in connection therewith as they 
deem of permanent benefit to the state ; and be it further 

Resolved, That the Chief of the Legislative Counsel Bureau be directed to act as 
secretary of said committee, that said committee shall have power to employ such 
assistance as may be necessary and that the expenses incurred in such investigation, 
not to exceed the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, shall be paid equally 
by the Senate and the Assembly out of their respective contingent funds. 

In pursuance of the above resolution the President of the Senate 
appointed : 

Senator Herbert C. Jones, of San Jose, 
Senator William J. Carr, of Pasadena, and 
Senator M. B. Harris, of Fresno; 
and the Speaker of the Assembly appointed: 

Assemblywoman Elizabeth Hughes, of Oroville, 
Assemblyman AValter Eden, of Santa Ana, and 
Assemblyman N. J. Prendergast, of San Francisco. ^ 
These comprised the membership of the special committee provided 
for. 

This Committee met and organized at Sacramento, at which meeting 

^Assemblyman Prendergast died on April 14, 1920, took part in but three hearings 
of the Commission, and had no part in the formulation of the final report. At 
the hearings which he attended he was deeply interested in the work of the Committee 
and in full sympathy with the findings here expressed. 



6 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

Senator Jones was elected Chairman, and afterwards lield three meeting's 
in Berlveley, and one each in Los Angeles, Fresno, Riverside and San 
Jose. An effort was made at the hearings to secure the attendance of 
representatives of taxpayers' associations, labor unions, and laymen, 
as well as those directly interested in public education. During the 
earlier portion of its work it was aided by Mr. Arthur P. Will, Chief 
of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, who acted as secretary until he left 
the service of the state, and throughout its work it has been materially 
assisted by the helpful cooperation and wise counsel of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, jNIr. Will C. Wood. In the 
preparation of the final report the Committee has availed itself of the 
assistance of Professor Ellwood P. Cubberley, Dean of the School of 
Education at Stanford University, who has taken the findings and 
conclusions of the Committee and drafted this Final Report. Many 
others, too numerous to mention here, have given assistance to the 
committee by appearing at its hearings, and some have submitted writ- 
ten statements for its information and guidance. To all of these here- 
unmentioned friends of education the Committee herewith extends its 
sincere thanks. 

DELIMITATION OF INVESTIGATION. 

From its first organization the Committee felt that it c^uld not 
attempt an exhaustive survey of the educational needs and resources 
of the state. This would recpiire time, money, expert assistance, and 
a degree of professional ability which were beyond the resources of 
the Committee. It was felt, too. that the resolution creating the special 
committee did not intend that it should deal with any such highly 
professional questions as curricula or the nature of the instruction 
provided, but rather that it was intended that the Committee should 
consider only the larger features of our administrative organization, 
with a view to making recommendations for the strengthening and 
more economical and effective operation of the state's educational 
system. It was also felt by the Committee that any recommendations 
which might be made by it ought to deal with principles of action and 
reasons therefor rather than with legislative details, and that the 
Committee should offer a constructive program for improvement which 
might be worked out over a period of perhaps the coming decade, 
rather than one so limited in character that it could all be accomplished 
at a single session of the Legislature. 

The Committee has also felt, more and more as it worked along, that 
in dealing with a state school system that has had such a steady and 
consistent development from its lieginnings, any reconunendations made 



lX'lKOni:CTK)N TO THE KEPOKT. t 

shiiul:! he in h.uinony with tlio nature and direction of tlie historical 
development which has taken place during the nearly three-cpiarters of 
a century of our state's history, as well as also be in harmony with the 
best American experience in state educational organization and admin- 
istraticn. Accordingly, your Committee has familiarized itself with 
the more important steps in the evolution of the California state school 
system, and in framing its report has tried to so shape its recom- 
mendations that what it i)roposes for the future will be but a further 
and a natural development of what has already been evolved. To a 
similar purpose the Committee has studied, briefly, the more important 
lines of recent educational evolution elsewh(^re, with a view to utilizing 
in this state the best educational experience and practice worked out 
in other states. 

With the above guiding principles in mind, the Committee tinally 
settled upon five main topics upon which to concentrate its hearings, 
and upon which it would formulate its report and recommendations, 
and tliese form the subject matter of the five chapters which follow. 
They are: 

1. The present state educational organization, and the need for 
certain changes that will give this state a sound, comprehensive, and 
more modern and more effective state educational organization. 

2. The present form of combined district and county educational 
organization, the weak points in this organization, and the changes 
needed to produce an efficient, effective, and economical administration 
of our town and rural schools and the educational business of our 
counties. 

3. The state's educational needs in teacher training, both before and 
after the teacher begins teaching, and the desirability of providing a 
more rational system for the certification of teachers in this state. 

4. The need for a better organization and administration of our 
secondary schools, and a more general extension upward of the higher 
education provided by the state through the organization of a system 
of regional junior colleges, and their organization and control. 

5. Problems relating to the cost of education, and the possibility of 
a further eciualization of the advantages and the burdens of education 
without increasing materially the costs. 

OUR CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT. 

Admitted to the Union, in 1850, as the thirty-first state, the develop- 
ment of California in people and resources was relatively slow for almost 
half a century. Early conceiving of education as an important function 
and duty of the state, and early establishing the principle that the 
wealth of the whole state should be called upon to educate the children 
of the state, California has for long held a position of importance and 



8 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

1390 1900 1910 1918 

D. C. 48.63 -^.,^__.__-— Mass. 49.52 \^ /Wash. 61. 21 \ >• Mont. 75 79 

Mass. 45.86— ^^'^''^.^ NY 46.57 \^\^^Cal. 60.44 —N" -pA-Q&\. 7121 

Csl. 43 79'--;y<::Cl^ P- ^- ^ ^Q JV""^^'"'^ ^ ^- ^^^-^ ""^Os/ /^'^- ^^'^ 
N. Y. 40.92''''^^ Cal. 43.80 --"X^ /^ Mass. 56.32 v^?^^,^/ N J 65.93 

R.I. 39.27-—-^ — ^Conn. 43.13 \ \/..^Nev. 56.01 \JV--''''^r- D C. 64 24 
Coiiu. 38.90- — — R. I. 43.05 N\^--^^r/N. J. 54.47 ^J^'n^ /^ Wash. 63 67 

Colo. 37.83 -~--,____^^Nev. 42 37 '^^\^''^>^^Mont.53.50 A. NV ilowa 61.85 
N.J. 37 49— --Zlr^''^ Colo. 4I.59n^^^^<;^'''^N. Y. 51 87 \\^JjW 61.39 

Mont. 36 34 -~~_/^7~ — - N. J. 40.26 '■^<7\><-' ^^a^ 50 92 -^sST/ r ^'^''- ^' ^ 

Penn. 34 70k/'^ ■ •Mont.39.51 -^O^^^-^V^ R. I. 50.84 » ^y //Mich. 60.43 

Nev 34.47 '^X^ /Utah 37.51 -^ XV- lU. 49 86 A ^_JW-^ Conn. 59 77 

Md. 33.30 V J\.-,-^Obio 37.34 --/^----'X^ Conn. 49.31 ^'''/A^ 59.72 

Ohio 33.09 --V'''NrX--IU. 37.18 -T^--^^/^ Colo. 49.23 -\j(::;;;7Sr\ N Y 59 35 
Ariz. 32.75\ V^----'^s(y' Wash.37 14 ' ^Ohio 48.68 ■-■''iT/'^fV-- Colo. 59 23 

lU. 3187Y'\. /^ Penn. 36 97 -~-______^ #Ore. 47.81 sA/ / \/N D59 17 

Mich. 31.86 -\ \/ /Ind. 36 33 — I^^^^^^"-"-^ Pcnn. 47.25 s?A^ / A Nev 59 05 
Wis, 30.99 \\>>0\// Neb. 36.11 v "" T^ Ind. 45.95 n\\J / " I"d 58 80 

Iowa 30.96 oY/ f/T ^^^^- ^^-^^ ^\r^^/ /^^^- ^^-^ / ^^t^/''^ ^'^^^^ ^^^"^ 
N. H. 30.95 vX^ / / A Md. 35.49 y N^T^^ M'ch- 45 19 ^,^.^/^S^- ^^'^^ 58 43 
Wash-SOSO-^^V/ A^Vt. 35.44 A y,^^^/ ,Uaho ^A.bl '■''^^J^^S^Ore 57 81 

Kans. 30.64 \ \X>^y ^I'i"> 35.41 -\ / )(V Minn. 44.51 """'^ / \\^ Penn 57.65 

Wyo. ^027\J\^Kj'S.D.34ms\ / / ANeb. 43.99 U — V^^*^*^ ^^^'* 

Vt. 30.22 -^^ V\X '°^* ^^^ \^k>6--/7^ ^ '^- "^3 23 \ / \\ IlawaiiS? 07 

Maine29.88 N^{7V^\A Wis. 34.31 -Vy^T/ /Kans. 43 06 vW V ID 56 75 

Ind. 29.82 -Q^^V/VS D. 33.99 Ol/yV// Wyo. 42 59 /T'v. V Wyo 56.71 

Minn. 29.45 7 /v^kAN- H. 33.82 -^T^J^^^S. D. 42 57y7\ ^\^^R I. 56 33 
Dei. 29307 / )(A^Mainp33.70 "/^"t^K^ ^Kans 55.16 

Utah 28.64'\( M^^Ore. 32.04 /NiVV^N. H 42.47 -j' C Z 55.11 

Fla. 28.52 v/X^^^'NX^ Wyo. 31.91 -^/y^ 42 1 1 ys^^^~""^~<^^/^ S D 55.03 

Ore. 27.9\ fT/yK V^^^- ^^^^ "^sC ^k/^ ^owa. 4 1 45 ' ^\^ Y^ N H 54 37 
Neb. 2&i3'X/ Jl><^ Kans. 31.54 y/"'""^-«,.V^Maine39 68 -v ^\\/ N M. 53 01 
S. D. 26 06 ^/V''''''^ \ Wiz. 30.17'/ ^^Mo. 38 SO -<v /V Vt 51.51 

Mo. 25.54 -/\ \Del. 30.10 -yL_____^ XMd. 38 47 n. ^N:^J/ ^ Wis. 51.34 

N.D. 25.48/ \ ^ Idaho 29.25/ " ^ Del. 3809 n/\ /s>- Mo. 49.64 

Ky. 23 39-— ,.^V-'/W.Va.27.07 — -____^ v'OkJa. 35 97 ---iO<s^^\Maine47.36 
Texas 23.23 --,^^^^\?^Ky. 25.23 >. "^^^ W.Va.32.87 \^ /X^^sT- OkJa. 44.44 

Idaho 22.81 ''■'^^--<\^ /N.M. 24.86 —i:^^^^---- Texas 32.34-^^^ \/^Md. 4322 
Va. 22.25 <v y/^^^ Texas 24.43 --p?^^^^^ — -NM. 31.05 / ^i;-^...^/^ Del. 42.48 
Miss. 21.88 \/<r Aokk. 23.27/ \^La. 30.94 v \/ -Texas41.12 

W.Va.21.82'\ \^ Npia. 22.45 -^^^^^^ >.^Ky. 30.44 \\ \^Fla. 37.77 

Tenn. 21.01 — -V— 9^— Tenn. 22.23 \^^S<-- ^a. 29.70 --^^^''''^^W.Va. 37.73 
Ark. 20.07V. V/ \Va. 21.69 -;^\![j^ Fla. 29.69''^^^-..,,^^^ P. R. 35.79 

La. 18.40 ^SC;\ La- 21.55-^ ^*"^ Tenn. 29.49 ■ — -^T^Va. 35.26 

Ala. 18.16 k /'V.j^Ga. 21.54 Ga. 29.12\^ ^^r~ Tenn. 35.14 

N. C. 17.80 n/X,;-'-'^\" Ark. 20.99 ^AJa. 26.93 s/\,^^^ Y Ky. 34.98 

Ga. 15.73--^y^\\ \ Miss. 20.89 — IZ^^^Ark. 26.70 \\^^\\ La. 33 86 
S. C. 12.46 / ^^Ov ^- ^- 20.75--^^^^^'^ ^ Miss. 26.39 \\\v ^Ga. 32.60 
N. M. 10.02' XO^Ala. 19.50 ^^^;;^::::*,;C—N. C. 25.71 ^OOs. N. C. 30.59 

^N. C. 17.51- ' ^S. C. 24.87 v^ \\OAJa. 30.58 

■Ark. 30.28 
•Miss. 30.04 

•S.C. 29.39 
Fig. 1. Index Numbers of States at Four Periods. 

(Reproduced by permission, from Leonard P. Ayers' An Index Number for State 

School Systeiiis, p. -}3. ) 
The 1918 Index Number for California was made up of the following Items and Scores: 

Score Rank 

1. For per cent of school population attending school daily 70.85 4th 

2. For average days attended by each child of school age 61.10 3d 

3. For average number of days the schools were kept open 86.00 13th 

4. For per cent of total attendance in the high schools 58.79 1st 

5. For per cent of boys in total high school attendance 77.82 14th 

6. For average annual expenditure per child attending school 79.41 4th 

7. For average annual expenditure per child of school age 56.26 2d 

8. For average annual expenditure per teacher employed 72.04 2d 

9. For expenditure per pupil for other than salaries 61.76 16th 

10. For expenditure per teacher for salary only 88.06 1st 



INTRODUCTION TO THE RKPORT. 9 

leadership among the states in the matter of public education. In 
many important features of its school system California has been first 
or among the first of the states to make such provision. Especially in 
the matter of school finance has California been a leader, no state having 
done more to equalize the burdens for maintenance and to extend the 
advantages of education throughout the state. In a recent ranking of 
the different American states and territories, based on ten items relat- 
ing to attendance, length of term, liigh school advantages, teachers' 
salaries, and total annual and per capita expenditures,^ California was 
shown to have for long held a liigh position among the states. Based 
on the ten items used, five of wliieh were financial, an index number 
for each of the forty-eiglit states, Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Canal Zone, 
and the District of Columbia was worked out, and these index numbers, 
witli the relative positions and changes in position, are shown, for the 
four periods studied, in the chart on the opposite page. With the 
adoption of Constitutional Amendment No. 16, at the recent general 
election, which materially increases both the state and county support 
for both elementary and high schools, California has stepped forward to 
a new position of importance in educational finance, and undoubtedly 
would occupy first place among the vstates on a similar ta])le constructed 
for 1921. 

Within the past two decades California has experienced a very 
remarkable development, and the future of the state seems especially, 
bright. In one aspect of our future educational development, though, 
the problem has become complicated and difficult, and promises to 
become more difficult with time. The development of California in 
population is not primarily by the increase of people of native English 
speech or Anglo-Saxon ideas as to law, government, sanitation, or the 
promotion of the public welfare. On the contrary, California stands 
M'cll toward the top of the states having high percentages of the foreign 
born among its population, and very high in the percentage of the 
foreigTi born coming from Spain, Southern Italy and Sicily, the Balkans, 
parts of Asia Minor, and the Orient. Of all our immigrants these 
l'?oples are furthest removed in governmental conceptions from those 
for which our government stands, and the problem of assimilating 
these peoples into our state and national life is a difficult one, and one 
that must be accomplished largely through education. There is every 
reason, too, in our climate, agriculture, horticulture and industries why 
Mediterranean and Oriental peoples should want to come to California, 
and large numbers of these peoples are today settled in the rural 
districts, where our educational system is weakest. 

Charged as tlie Legislature is by the Constitution of the state to 

'The ten items ai-e given on page 8, beneath the chart showing state Index 
Numbers. 



10 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

"encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scien- 
tific, moral, and agricultural improvement," it is important that it see 
that the state 's educational system be as sound in organization, compre- 
hensive in scope, and effective in results as the highest needs of a state 
of such large future demands. The financial structure of the California 
school system is and for long has been good ; the important needs of the 
state's school system have seemed to your Committee to be rather along 
the lines of better administrative organization, the provision of a mucli 
better type of schools for rural people, the establishment of Junior 
Colleges, and the further extension of certain parts of the public school 
system. It will be the purpose of this report, in the chapters which 
follow, to set forth these needs as the Committee came to see them, 
and the recommendations it was led to formulate. 

Respectfully submitted. 

William J. Carr, 
M. B. Harris, 
Elizabeth Hughes, 
Walter Eden, 

Herbert C. Jones, Chairman ; 
Committee. 
Final report approved December 14, 1920. 



STATi': ki)1ic;ati()n.\l organization. 1] 

Chapter I. 

STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 

CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT BEFORE 1913. 

The fii*st Constitution of California provided for tlie election, liy the 
people, of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, for a term of 
three years. In 1863 the Constitution was amended to provide for four- 
year terms, and this i)rovision has ever since remained. In the first 
real school law, enacted in 1852, the main outlines of the present state 
school system, modeled largely after conditions then existing in the 
state of New York, were laid down. An ex officio State Board of Educa- 
tion also was early created hy law, largely to look after the school lands 
given the state by Congress, and in 1860 the power to select textbooks 
was given this board also. Ex officio connty superintendents of schools 
also were provided for by designating the county treasurers to so act, 
and in 1855 the office of County Superintendent of Schools was also cre- 
ated, the superintendent to be elected also by popular vote. The law of 
1852, as well as an earlier law of 1851, provided for the subdivision of the 
"counties into school districts and the election of three trustees for each, 
and in 1855 city school organization, with cit}^ boards of education and 
city superintendents of schools, also was added. In 1860 a State Board 
of Examination was provided for, to examine teachers and to grant 
teachers' certificates; in 1862 the first state normal school was created: 
in 1863 state aid for teachers' institutes was begun; in 1867 the "rate 
bill," a tax on the parents of children attending the schools, was 
abolished and the schools were made free ; and in 1869 the State Uni- 
versity was established to crown the state's educational system. 

In 1879 a new and quite reactionary State Constitution was adopted 
which abolished the State Board of Education and the State Board 
of Examiners, and decentralized the school system then developing by 
establishing county boards of education and giving to them the power 
to adopt textbooks and to examine and certificate teachers previously 
possessed by the State Board of Education. Five years later, however, 
the Constitution was amended by vote of the people, the State Board 
of Education Avas recreated, and power was given it to prepare and 
edit and publish a state series of textbooks for the schools of the state. 
The board thus created was an ex officio body, composed entirely of state 
school officials.' This board in time not proving .satisfactory, the people 



'It consisted of the following- niil)lic officials and school officers, ex officio : The 
Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instrviction, the President and Professor of 
Education in the State University, and the presidents of all state normal schools in 
this stat^. 



12 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

ill 1912 abolished it by further ameudmeut of the Constitution, and 
directed the Legislature to provide by law for the creation of a new 
State Board of Education, and with power to do this in any manner 
that the Legislature might deem wise. This the Legislature did in 1913, 
and the plan then adopted has not been changed since. 

RECENT AMERICAN PRACTICE AND THEORY. 

Wliile no uniform plan for state educational organization has as yet 
been evolved, and a number of different plans are in use in the 
different states, certain tendencies nevertheless, as an outgrowth of 
experience, have become clearly manifest during the past ten to fifteen 
years. Summarizing these it may be said that the best American 
experience and theory today indicate that a State Board of Education 
should be constituted about as follows : 

1. It should be composed of not less than five nor more than nine mem- 
bers, with seven as the most desirable number, and with terms of service 
so distributed that only one member should go out of office each year. 
It is not regarded as desiral)le that any Governor should have power 
to completely change the composition of the board during one term 
in office. 

2. The board should be composed of la^'men. should represent the 
public interest, and should have in its membership no ex officio members. 

3. The members should be appointed by the Governor, and in making 
the appointments he should be free from all restrictions as to residence, 
party affiliation, race, religion, or sex. The Governor should also fill 
vacancies, for the unexpired term, and should have power to remove 
any member for immorality, malfeasance in office, incompetency, or 
continued neglect of duty. 

4. No salary should be attached to membership, but necCvSsary travel- 
ling expenses and a small per diem, or a small annual honorarium, 
should be paid each member. 

The present State Board of Education for California (§ 1517 of the 
Political Code) meets the.se requirements in all particulars except as to 
length of term, the California Constitution prohibiting a longer appoint- 
ment than for four years. It would be well if the term of all members 
could be extended to seven years. 

POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

It was the evident intent of the law of 1913, creating the present 
State Board of Education, and strengthened by subsequent legislation, 
to create for California a State Board of Education which should in time 
evolve into a real board for the administrative control of the educational 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 13 

service maintained by this state. The constitutionally older Superin- 
tendent of Pulilie Instruction was directed by the law to act as secretary 
and chief executive officer for the board; the board was given power 
to appoint three assistant superintendents who should be known as 
commissioners ; power was given the board to make rules and regulations 
not inconsistent with law for the government of the schools of the 
state; it was empowered to study the educational needs of the state, 
and to propose plans for improving the school system ; it was authorized 
to conduct investigations, employ additional educational and business 
experts to assist it, within the limits of its appropriations; the power 
of the old state board to issue teaching credentials and life diplomas 
was confirmed and extended ; it was authorized to create a committee on 
credentials to pass on the cases of applicants ; the old power to compile, 
or adopt, and to order printed the text books for the schools of the 
state was continued to it; it has been given authority to standardize 
the normal schools of the state, and prescribe the standards of admis- 
sion and graduation therefrom; it has been given similar power to 
approve all courses of study for the high schools and junior colleges 
of the state; the administration of the retirement fund for teachers 
has been placed in its hands ; and the organization and administration 
of a program for physical education in the schools has been assigned 
to it. 

The Legislature of this state, in conformity with an act of the 
Congress of the United States, has further materially increased the 
powers and the importance of the State Board of Education by designat- 
ing it as the official state bod}^ to administer the funds granted to this 
state by Congress for vocational education, under the Smith-Hughes 
law of 1917, and also, still moi'c recently Congress has designated it 
to control the funds granted to this state for the reeducation of persons 
crippled in industry. The Smith-Towner bill, now before Congress, 
providing for rather liljeral aid to the states for specific forms of public 
education and teacher training,- proposes to still further increase the 
importance of the State Board of Education by making it the agent 
of the Federal Government in expending all aid to be granted to the 
state. 

It is evident then that it was the intention of the Legislature of 1913, 
and still further emphasized by subseciuent legislation, to create for 



^The Smith-Towner bill, now before Congress, while leaving all educational control 
to the different states, provides for the granting of .$100,000,000 annually to the 
states, for the following purposes : 

$7,500,000 for the removal of illiteracy; 
$7,500,000 for Americanization work; 
$20,000,000 for work in physical education; 
$15,000,000 for the preparation of teachers; and 

$50,000,000 for the equalization of educational opportunities and aid in the pay- 
ment of the salaries of teachers. 



14 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE OX EDUCATION. 

California a state board of control, after the best American models, 
for the eduejitional system supported hy the state. This intent has been 
given still further emphasis b}- the acts of Congres.s. Still more, the 
Avisdom shown by the new State Board of Education in the execution 
of the functions entrusted to it has awakened confidence that the state 
has finally obtained an important coordinating and directive agency 
which is capable of much further expansion, that it may render still 
hirger service in the future. 

PROPER FUNCTIONS FOR A STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

AVhat has taken place in California has also taken place in a number 
of other American states, during the past ten to fifteen years. Old and 
ex officio State Boards of Education have been abolished, and new State 
Beards of Education have been created in their stead. The Smith- 
Hughes Act of 1917 virtually required a State Board of Education of 
some type in every state. In addition to acting as agents of the Federal 
Government in the administration of federal funds, granted as aid to 
the states, these new State Boards of Education have been entrusted by 
the legishitures creating them with new powers, naturally differing 
somewhat in the ditferent states. Though probably no two boards have 
exactly the same powers and duties, and an examination of this recent 
legislation gives evidence that we are still in a period of experiment, 
nevertheless certain tendencies are evident and the probable direction 
of state school control is each year becoming more and more clear. 
Briefly these tendencies may be summarized, as follows: — 

1. The creation of a Department of Education in the state government 
which shall exercise, through an appointed State Board of Education, 
supervisory oversight and control over the entire system of public 
instruction supported by the state. 

2. The aljolition of the elective office of Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, which represents an earlier stage in our educational evolu- 
tion, and the substitution therefor of an appointed Commissioner of 
Education, to be appointed by and responsible to the State Board of 
Education, and who shall act as the chief executive officer of the board 
and its representative before the people. The Commissioner of Education 
thus becomes somewhat analagous to a superintendent of city schools 
in a large city, chosen by and responsible to a city board of education. 

3. In the selection of such a Commissioner of Education the State 
Board of Education should be free from restrictions as to politics, sex. 
and residence, and should be able to fix the salary and determine the 
tenure. Under the same conditions the board should appoint as many 



STATE EDUCATIOXAL ORGANIZATION. 15 

Assistant CoiiiniLssioiiers as may be provided fur by law, to act a.s lieads 
of the diit'ei-eiit divi.sions of the state educational department. 

4. The State Board of P^dueation .should have power to determine, 
subject to legislative regulation, the educational policies to be pursued 
in the state, and to have power to inspect, require reports from, and 
to coordinate the educational work of the different educational institu- 
tions supported by the state, and with a view to securing economy of 
operation, efficient educational administration, and a sound, compre- 
hensive, and well-coordinated state system of schools. 

5. The State Board of Education should exercise regulatory control 
over all institutions engaged in the training of teachers; control the 
examination, certification, and retirement of teachers; supervise the 
educational work done in all charitable, penal, and reformatory institu- 
tions maintained by the state ; direct the program for physical training 
and health work in the schools; exercise a supervisory control over 
school buildings, see that sanitary conditions are maintained, and 
that new buildings conform to proper standards ; see that the educa- 
tional laws of the state are enforced, and the educational rights of 
children protected; and conduct investigations as to the progress 
and needs of the schools of the state, and report the results and their 
recommendations to the Legislature. 

6. The State Board of Education should be the body, subject to direc- 
tion by the Legislature, to determine questions of policy in the manage- 
ment of the school system, pa.s.s on new proposals, and vote official 
instructions, but all execution of such decisions and the taking of action 
in the name of the state to be done by and through its executive officers, 
that is, by the Commissioner of Education and his assistants, or other 
persons instructed to act in the name of the board. 

7. In a few states the state library has been conceived of as a part 
of the state's educational service and placed under the control of the 
State Board of Education, and as a division of the State Education 
Department, and the county libraries have been placed under the direc- 
tion of the county boards of education ; in a few other states the manage- 
ment and investment of the permanent state school fund has been 
placed under the State Board of Education. 

What is outlined above is perhaps best found in the state educational 
organizations of New York, New Jersey, and Indiana, though a number 
of other .states have recently conferred upon their State Boards of 
Education somewhat analagous powers. Within the past fifteen years, 
too, and as a part of the same tendency to create an effective and 
rational state educational organization, a number of states have changed 



16' 



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STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION'. 17 

from au elective Superiuteiidont of Pul)li(; Instruct ioii to an appi)iiited 
(.'oiumissioner of Education. The map opposite shows where the chief 
educational oi'tlcer of the state is elected by popular vote, and where 
lie is appointed. It will be seen, from the map, that the eliange has 
been most comninii in those eastern and nortliern states of rather dense 
population antl containing a large foreign element, while the less densely 
populated and more native agricultural states to the west and south 
have not as yet felt the necessity for educational reorganization. In a 
few states, such as Wyoming and Idaho, where eonstitutional provisions 
have been hard to change, a Commissioner of Education lias been 
created, to be appointed by the State Board of Education and to act 
as its executive officer, while retaining the older elected Superintendent 
of Public Instruction for the clerical and statistical duties. Such an 
organization, while at times necessary, nevertheless is fraught with 
possibilities for discord and friction. 

THE CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT SINCE 1913. 

When we turn to California we find that, since 1913, a partial evolu- 
tion in the direction of good educational organization has been taking 
place. What has been done since the abolition of the old ex officio 
State Board of Education, in 1912, measured by good standards as 
estal)lished by American state action, has been in the right direction, 
so far as it has gone. Tlije next eight to ten years should see a much 
further development in the same general direction, so that California 
too, a decade from now, may have evolved a State Department of Educa- 
tion that will be capable of rendering large educational service amid 
the new educational conditions that we shall by that time be called upon 
to face, and the new educational pi'oblems that we shall In- then be called 
upon to solve. 

The present stage in our California state educational development is 
well shown in the chart on i)age eighteen. As in a number of other 
states which have experienced a recent development toward a rational 
form of state educational organization, and where eonstitutional provi- 
sions requiring an elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
stood in the way of a complete and adequate reorganization, we find 
in California also a double-headed form of state educational organiza- 
tion. To the older office of Superintendent of Public Instruction certain 
t-arlier functions of a supervisory and clerical and statistical nature 
are given by law, while to the newer State Board of Education a num- 
ber of new functions relating to policy and educational control have 
been given, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction has been 
directed to act as its executive officer and secretary. So long as the 

2— 77C9 



18 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



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STATE EDUCATIOXAL ORGANIZATION. 10 

present Superiuteiident of Public Instruction remaias in office, and so 
long as the State Board of Education continues to pui-sue its present 
policy, harmonious relations between tlie two divisions of our state 
department are likely to continue, l)ut the situation nevertheless is 
fraught with danger and sooner or later is destined to cause trouble. 
It will be seen from the chart that that part of the state educational 
organization represented by the State Board of Education is clearly 
responsible to the Governor and the Legislature for its acts, while that 
part represented l)y the Superintendent of Public Instruction remains 
independent of l)Oth State Board of Education and Governor, and 
largely independent of the Legislature as well, and may work with the 
State Board of Education or against it. according to the character of 
the official elected to the office of Superintendent. 

Only a policy of friendly cooperation between the State Board of 
Education and the Superintendent, or. where this is not possible, a 
policy of inactivity or resignation on the part of either the State Board 
or the Superintendent can prevent friction, to the disadvantage of 
the school sy.stem. with the state school office organized as it now 
is in this state. The temptation of a weak State Superintendent to 
play politics against the State Board of Education, and seek for cheap 
public notoriety to secure reelection, wculd be both possible and natural. 
Over such a Superintendent the State Board could exercise no control 
whatever. 

Still more, an antagonized or antagonistic Superintendent might at 
some time raise the constitutional question as to the right of the State 
Beard of Education to do anything whatever in the nature of supervi- 
sion, claiming that it has no power other than regulatory power. In sup- 
port of this he could claim that the superintending function, in its very 
nature, is an integral and indi\Tsible function — that there cannot be two 
superintending agencies. The Legislature, in a way. recognized this in 
organizing the State Board of Education in 1913, when it provided 
that the three Commissioners should rank as Assistant Superintendents 
of Public Instruction, and that their work should be directed by the 
Superintendent, under such general regulations as the State Board of 
Education might adopt. The supreme courts of North Dakota and 
Wyoming have held that since the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion is a constitutional officer whose powers are implied generally in his 
title, it is not competent for the Legislature to a&sign these powers to 
any other officer or commission. 

That the Superintendency is a key pasition, and that an obdurate 
Superintendent could almost completely check the work of the State 



20 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

Board of Education except in regulation and investigation, should not 
be lost sight of. Undoubtedly, then, the present California educational 
organization must l)e regarded as temporary and transitional, and dan- 
gerous for the future, and it should l)e superseded at the earliest oppor- 
tunity by a more rational form of state educational organization. Such 
a form will be proposed a little further on. 

FURTHER LACK OF GOOD EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 

The chart given on page 18, reveals but a part of the lack of rational 
educational organization in tliis state. Examining further into the plans 
now employed for the organization and control of what the state has 
so far assumed as its educational functions, we get the next chart, given 
on the opposite page. This shows the many different educational func- 
tions and institutions which this state has up to now assumed and is in 
whole or in part supporting, and at the same time reveals the number 
of more or less unrelated boards, commissions, and other agencies having 
charge of some part of the educational work of the state. Briefly, these 
unrelated agencies may be summarized as follows : — 

1. Tlie Coninhon Schools. Under the general control of the State 
Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

2. The State University. This institution, unlike in most other 
states, is not included as a part of the public school system, but exists 
separate and apart. It has no legally-conferred power to in any way 
control the public schools, though it has in the past exercised large 
control over the high schools. Conversely the public school authorities 
have no power to control any function of the university. The only legal 
connection existing at present between it and the public school system 
lies in that the Superintendent of Public Instruction is ex officio a 
member of the Board of Regents for the University. 

3. The State Normal Schools. Seven normal schools are maintained 
by the state. They are a part of the public school system. Each is 
under the control of a Board of five Trustees, appointed by the 
Governor, with the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion members ex officio. In financial matters they are subject to the 
State Board of Control, and in most educational matters to the State 
Board of Education. 

4. California Polytechnic School. Located at San Luis Obispo. 
Under the control of a Board of Trustees, organized in a manner similar 
to a normal school board. The State Board of Education has no power 
to direct its work, or to bring it into any close relation to the state 
school system. 

5. Schools for Juvenile Delinquents. These are located at "Whittier, 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 



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22 REPORT OP LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

lone, and Ventura. Each has a Board of Trustees, appointed by the 
Governor. The state educational offices have no relation to the work of 
these schools. 

6. Sdiools for Adult Delinquents. Schools for prisoners are main- 
tained in the state prisons at San Quentin and Folsom. The schools 
are under the control of the prison boards. The state educational 
offices have no relation to these schools. 

7. ScJwols for Atypical Children. The Sonoma State Home, at Glen 
Ellen, is managed by a board of trustees, ^and the Pacific 
Colony, now being established near Pomona, is under a Board of 
three Trustees, appointed by the Governor. The State Board of 
Charities and Corrections exercises some oversight of these two insti- 
tutions, but the state educational offices have no relations with either. 

8. State School for the Deaf and Blind. This is located at Berkeley, 
is managed by a Board of five Trustees appointed by the Governor, 
and bears no relation to the state educational offices. 

9. Home for the Adult Blind. There is also a Home for the Educa- 
tion of the Adult Blind at Oakland, also not related to the state educa- 
tional system. 

10. State Nautical School. Authorized by the Legislature of 1917, 
and to be established at San Francisco, in cooperation with the Fed- 
eral Government. The Governor, President of the State Board of Edu- 
cation, and the President of the San Francisco Board of Harbor Com- 
missioners were to constitute the Board of Trustees for its manage- 
ment. The school lias not as yet been opened, due to the failure of 
the national government to supply a vessel for it. 

11. Immigrant Education. The aet creating the State Commission 
on Immigration and Housing authorizes that Commission to cooperate 
with the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the education of immi- 
grants and their children. The plan worked out is one under which the 
Superintendent deputizes an agent of the Commission to serve as an 
Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction, and to have charge of 
the work. This gives the Superintendent some supervision over it. 

12. Reeducation of Cripples. The Legislature of 1919 set aside cer- 
tain funds for the Industrial Accident Commission to use for the 
reeducation of persons crippled in industry. The state educational 
offices, under the law, have no relation to the work. The last Federal 
Congress, however, passed an act appropriating a considerable sum of 
money, to be apportioned to the states for the same purpose, on condi- 
tion that the states duplicate the amount and put the management 
of the expenditure under the State Boards of Education. The California 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 23 

allotment is about $20,000. A reorganization of this work will need 
to be made if California is not to Icse its share. 

13. Educalion and Care of Orphans. This work is under private aus- 
pices, subject to inspection by the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. To these institutions the state has just voted to give 
exemption from local taxation. Both the Board of Control and the 
State Board of Charities and Corrections also look after this work, in 
part, but not from the standpoint of education. 

14. The State Library. This institution does an important educa- 
tional work for adults, including adult lilind. ])ut also is unrelated to 
the state educational offices. 

Counting up, there are twenty-three boards and commissions, all quite 
unrelated or but loosely related to one another, which exercise control 
over some portion of the educational work of the state. In few states 
in the Union would a greater decentralization of control be found. That 
the assignment in California has been haphazard, and made without 
any guiding educational principle, is evident. The whole represents 
a gradual growth without a unifying plan, and is not based on an>- 
administrative principle. Such a haphazard organization will inevi- 
tably be uneconomical in administration and inefficient in action. 

REASON FOR SUCH LACK OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 

The reason for such a lack of any rational organization in the educa- 
tional work of the state is not hard to find. Up to very recently the 
principle of decentralization has been a fundamental guiding principle 
in our democratic form of government. The Constitution of 1879 gave 
special emphasis to this idea. The old State Board of Education, too, 
*\'as composed of bu.sy school men. and hardly able to organize an 
educational department or take on any additional educational functions. 
Neither was the state educational office able to act efficiently. The 
result was that, before 1913, whenever the need for the discharge of a 
new educational function arose, the work was assigned to some other 
board or commission, or a new body to take charge of it was created. 
The result is th^it today we find the educational work supported by the 
state scattered, in its supervision and control, among twenty-three 
boards or commissions, with a membership of about one hundred and 
sixty persons, and these acting with little relation to one another. 

DESIRABLE EDUCATIONAL REORGANIZATION IN THIS STATE. 

To harmonize and make more effective the work of the different edu- 
cational institutions supported in whole or in part by this state, to 
bring them into a properly coordinated and comprehensive whole, to 



24 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCxVTION. 

reduce the number of persons at work on the educational problem, to 
promote efficiency and economy in our educational service, and to create 
for California a sound and intelligent educational administration for 
all parts of the public school system, the Committee feels that there 
should be created a comprehensive and unified State Department of 
Education, through which the educational control to be exercised by the 
state should be discharged. The present double-headed state educa- 
tional control should be unified, the different educational functions of 
the state given their proper place in a logical State Department of 
Education, and this Department should also be so broadly conceived 
and so framed that every new educational function hereafter developed 
may be assigned naturall}' to it for purposes of supervisory control, and 
may find in it its natural place. To this new Department educational 
functions now being exercised elsewhere should gradually be reassigned. 
While preserving the principles of democratic government, it should 
be frankly recognized that efficiency and economy can only be secured 
by an organization which recognizes the importance of expert profes- 
sional service, in which there is proper responsibility for the use of 
authority, through which related functions are brought together for 
administrative control, and by means of which the interests of the 
state in education can be promoted intelligently and effectively. 

To this end the Committee recommends that the Legislature propose 
a constitutional amendment to the people, to take the place of the 
present section 2 of article IX of the Constitution, which requires the 
election by tlie qualified electors of the state of a Superintendent of 
Public Instruction at each gubernatorial election, and the substitution 
tlierefor of a new section 2 to read substantially as follows : 

Sec. 2. The Legislature shall provide for the appointment, by the 
State Board of Education, of a Commissioner of Education, w^ho shall 
act as the chief executive officer of said board and shall execute, under 
its direction, all educational policies decided upon. 

Once such a constitutional change has been effected it will then be 
possible for the legislature to create, under the headship of the State 
Board of Education, a State Department of Education capable of prop- 
erly coordinating the different parts of the state's educational service, 
insuring harmonious relations in all its parts, and rendering large serv- 
ice to the schools of the state. In the meantime the Legislature can 
proceed with the creation of a State Department of Education, but 
there will always be danger of serious friction until such a constitutional 
change gives authority for a proper relationship of all its parts. 
AN ADEQUATE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 

The type of reorganization the Committee has in mind for ultimate 
development in California is shown in the diagram on the opposite page. 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 



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26' REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

Such a department is perhaps today best represented by the State 
Department of Education in New York, though a number of other 
states have partial departments which embody the general idea and 
portions of the plan shown herewith. It will be seen from the drawing 
that the people of the state, acting through an elected Governor and 
Legislature, would appoint the members and control the policy of the 
State Board of Education. The Governor appoints the members, and 
the Legislature enacts the laws under which the Board works. The chief 
executive officer of the Board is the appointed Commissioner of Educa- 
tion. On his recommendation, and as provided for bv the Legislature, 
the Board would appoint Assistant Commissioners or heads of divisions, 
and these would have charge, under the general direction of the Com- 
missioner and the Board, of such divisions within the Department as 
the Legislature may from time to time create and add. 

The divisions that might properly be found in a well-developed State 
Department of Education, and the proper work for each division, may 
be summarized here. The divisions which are already, more or less 
clearly, in existence in the present double-headed California state organ- 
ization are indicated by prefixing an *. 

*1. Business Division. The head of this division should act as Secre- 
tary and Business Manager for the State Board of Education, and the 
other divisions of the Department; keep all books and records; make 
all purchases and pay all bills; apportion the school funds; and per- 
form such other duties as the State Board may direct. 

*2. Puhlication, Information, and Statistical Dimsion. This division 
should collect and tabulate all statistical matter; prepare and issue all 
blanks, forms, and registers ; prepare the biennial report, and other 
publications ; answer inquiries from the public ; prescribe uniform forms 
for bookkeeping and returns; supply tlie United States Commissioner 
of Education and other governmental officials and departments with 
requested data; and prepare and issue the annual statistical portions of 
the educational reports. 

3. Legal Division. This division has rendered such valuable service 
in the State of New York, by providing a simple, inexpensive, and expe- 
ditious method of interpreting the meaning of the school law and set- 
tling disputes under it, that it is recommended for establishment in 
this state. At its head would be an attorney versed in school law, who 
would edit and publish the school law, advise the Legislature as to 
]egi.slation, and, through a series of numbered decisions, each to be 
approved by the Commissioner of Education, interpret the meaning and 
intent of the school law. The decisions of the State Department of 
Education would expedite the public business and greatly cheapen pro- 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 27 

cednre by freeing the courts of most of the school litigation which now 
finds its way there. 

4. Research Division. The work of such a division has been well 
developed in Wisconsin, and in a few other states. The department 
should act as a center for the dissemination of educational information 
and the answering of inquiries from the public ; and should be a center 
for the supply or sale of educational tests and scales and the exchange 
of results with all parts of the state. This would create an investigation 
bureau for the schools of the state, with a view to improving and advis- 
ing as to instruction, analagous to the bureaus which our leading city 
school systems now maintain. 

5. Teacher-Training Division. This division should exercise super- 
visory oversight and control of the work done in the training of teachere 
in all institutions within the state; study conditions and advances made 
in other states; advise the State Board of Education as to actions to be 
taken ; and direct the after-training of teachers in service through the 
reading circle work recommended in chapter III. For a time at least, 
this division could be combined with 6. 

*6. Examining, Certificating and Pensioning Division. This division 
should have charge of all examinations for the certification of teachers, 
which ought to be made a state function and made uniform through- 
out the state ; the granting of certificates, or at least the credentials upon 
which certificates are granted; the recording of the service of teachers 
within the state ; and the handling of all matters relating to pensions 
granted to teachers on retirement from service. Except in a large 
department this division could be combined with 5, above. 

7. Buildings and Sanitation Division. This division should study the 
needs and suggest plans for improving schoolhouse construction and 
sanitation in this state ; and prepare sets of plans for different types 
of school buildings, which would be loaned, without charge, to the school 
corporations of this state. All plans for new school buildings, outside 
of cities, should l)e approved by it. It should also assist counties in 
making sanitary surveys of school buildings. This division could be 
made into quite a money-saver for the state. 

*8. Vocational Education Division. This division should cover the 
work in *agricultural education, *]iome economics, trade and industry, 
and commerce; would act as agent of the Federal Government for 
work in this state under the Smith-Hughes law; and should also be 
given supervisory oversight of the w^ork in the California Polytechnic 
School and the State Nautical School. The Rehabilitation division (12) 
described on the following page might also be made a part of this 
division. This would be a large and, for this state, a very important 
division. 



28 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

*9. Secondary Education Division. In addition to the . work now 
done by this branch of the present department in visiting and super- 
vising the work of the high schools of this state, this division should 
take over from the University of California, as recommended in Chapter 
IV, the inspection and accrediting of all high schools, and should also 
exercise supervisory oversight over both the junior high schools (inter- 
mediate schools) and the junior colleges as these are established in this 
state. 

*10. Elementary Education Division. This division should study 
the problems, administration, and needs of the kindergartens and day 
and evening elementary schools, both rural and graded, of this state, 
with a view to improving both their administration and instruction. 

11. Special Education Division. This division should exercise super- 
visory oversight over, and study with a view to improving, the education 
provided for the blind, deaf and dumb, feeble minded and mentally 
defective, the truant and incorrigible, and dependent and delinquent 
children. To this end it should be given supervisory oversight of all 
educational work done in the charitalile, penal, and reformatory insti- 
tutions and orphan asylums supported in whole or in part by the state, 
and should maintain an ^experimental laboratory (now in existence 
at the Whittier State School) for the measurement and proper classi- 
fication of all children sent to such institutions. 

12. Behahilitation Division. This division should take over the work 
provided for by the Legislature of 1919, in the reeducation of persons 
crippled in industry, and become the agent of the Federal Government 
in such work in this state (see pp. 22 and 23). The education of 
crippled children would also come under this supervisory oversight. In 
this state the work of this division could be well carried on under the 
Vocational Education division (8), described on the preceding page. 

13. Adult Education Division. This division should have charge of 
the work in immigrant education, the work in Americanization, and 
adult education generally. Combined with it, for a time at least, should 
be the state work in visual education, which means a bureau for supply- 
ing the schools and libraries of the state with charts, maps, lantern slides, 
and films of an educational nature, and which, by reason of their 
expense, individual school systems should seldom purchase. In the state 
of New York this has been erected into an important special division. 

*14. Health and Physical-Welfare Division. This division should 
have oversight of the state's program for physical education and health 
work in the schools ; should conduct health and child-welfare surveys ; 
should stimulate and guide the instruction in health and physical 
training in the schools; and should make studies as to the health, 
physical welfare, nutrition, and abnormalities of school children. 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 29 

15. Art and Music Division. This division should study the needs 
of the state in pure and applied art and in music, with a view to 
improving the instruction in pure and applied art and in music, 
elevating the artistic and musical tastes of our people, and better 
preparing tlie workers for the applied-art needs of the industries. For 
more than half a century the state of Massachusetts has supervised and 
aided such instruction, and with large economic returns in her 
industries. 

16. Library Division. In some of our states, notably New York, the 
state library has been classified as a division of the State Department 
of Education, and the county libraries in other states have been closely 
connected with the county educational administration. This seems to 
be the logical place for such service, as it is essentially educational. 
The work of the State Library in this state is so good that there is no 
present need for such a reclassification, but the Committee feels that 
the county library work would be much better provided for if placed 
under the type of county educational organization, described in Chapter 
II, than under the boards of supervisors as at present. 

The present double-headed State Department of Education has, under 
the control of one side or the other of its organization, divisions num- 
bered above as 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 14. Division 11 is already in 
existence at the AVhittier State School. The work of division 13 has 
been begun under the direction of the State Commission on Immigra- 
tion and Housing. Division 16 exists under a separate board. Other 
divisions could be organized by a mere rearrangement of work, and 
without increase of cost. The department is thus capable of expansion, 
as needed, and as the Legislature may see fit from time to time to 
direct. Such a department, when fully organized, would not be ex- 
pensive, and would be of value clearly beyond its cost. 

PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING STATE EDUCATIONAL CONTROL. 

The prime purpo.se of such an educational organization is the creation 
of a State Department of Education along the lines of our best admin- 
istrative experience, one analagous in authority to our more recent 
creations in other branches of the state service, and one having under it 
a sufficient number of trained workers to be able to carry out, over a 
considerable period of time, a wise, intelligent, and constructive state 
educational policy, based on a careful study of conditions and needs 
and the best of administrative experience. The proper solution of 
state educational problems requires careful study and years of wise 
educational direction, and this the state can supply better than can its 
subordinate educational units. 

In all such matters as types of schools which must be maintained, 
length of school term, the education and certification of teachers, the 



30 REPORT OP LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

standards for the supervision of instruction, building- and sanitary 
standards, forms and rates of taxation, terms for compulsion to attend, 
child-protection laws, standards for education in rural communities, 
types of vocational education and guidance that nuist be provided, and 
the provision of education for defectives and delinquents, it is essen- 
tially the business of the state to set the minimum standards which it 
will permit schools to provide. It is also the business of the state to 
study the changing conditions within the state, and the educational 
needs of the state, and from time to time to advance the minimum 
standards which it will permit. To do this intelligently the Legislature, 
acting for the state, needs advice based on careful study of conditions 
and needs, and this it should be the Imsiness of such a State Department 
of Education to supply. The state, too, on the administrative side, 
should become an active, energetic agent, working constantly for the 
improvement of educational conditions throughout the state. For such 
service, and to control the many new educational undertakings which 
modern states must provide, a well organized and efficient State 
Department of Education is an essential. Such a Department as has 
been outlined above will render a service out of all proportion to the 
cost for its maintenance. 

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In summary fonn, the findings and recommendations of the 
Committee are as follows : 

1. State educational legislation in California has moved rather 
regularly toward the creation of an effective form of state educational 
control, and rapidly since 1913. 

2. The evolution since 1913 has been good, and in the right direction, 
as measured by the best American educational practice. 

3. The best American experience and theory points to the desirability 
of a unified educational oversight for all educational functions assumed 
by the state, exercised through a properly organized State Department 
of Education. 

4. The present state school administrative organization in California 
is double-headed, and contains elements that could easily produce 
discord and destroy its efficiency. 

5. The present administrative organization should be unified by the 
abolition of the elected office of State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, which will require a constitutional amendment, and the 
substitution therefor of an appointed Commissioner of Education to be 
appointed by and responsible to the State Board of Education. 

6. The present educational organization in California is haphazard, 
and should be unified under a State Department of Education, with 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 31 

such divisious as the Legislature may from time to time create. A 
rather full type of state department is sketched, to show how such a 
department should be organized and what it ought ultimately to 
evolve into. 

7. A consideration of the best principles of state educational control 
would indicate that such a department should study carefully the 
changing educational needs of the state, advise and guide the subor- 
dinate educational divisions and institutions of the state, and advise 
the Legislature as to legislation that will establish desirable minimum 
standards and improve education throughout the state. 

8. Such an evolution probably will be the work of a decade, but it 
represents a desirable form of organization towards which the state 
should move as rapidly as can be done. 



32 report of legislative committee on education. 

Chapter IL 

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 

EARLY CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT. 

The first school laws enacted after the admission of California into 
the Union laid the foundations of our present form of county educa- 
tional organization. The first law, in 1851, provided for the subdivision 
of the counties into school districts, after the then Massachusetts-New 
York form of organization, with district boards of three school trustees 
for each. These were to be elected by the people, and to have control of 
the school affairs of the districts. They were given power to build 
school houses, to examine and certify teachers, to appoint them to office, 
and to pay them from the income from the state school funds and from 
tuition fees. In 1852 a district school tax was authorized, to supple- 
ment such funds, and the beginnings of county supervision were made 
by ordering the county treasurers to act, ex officio, as county superin- 
tendents of schools to supervise expenditures. The law of 1855 went 
a step further by providing for the election of regular county superin- 
tendents of schools, by popular vote, and gave to them the general 
supervision of the schools of the districts and the apportionment of 
funds, and also provided for separate city organization under city 
boards of education and city superintendents of schools. In 1860 the 
county superintendents were authorized to appoint county boards of 
examination, to supercede the district trustees in the examination and 
certification of teachers, while the selection of textboolis was transferred 
from the districts to the state and given to the State Board of 
Education. 

Thus were laid the foundations of the California plan of combined 
district and county school control, with some state oversight, which 
has continued ever since. The Massachusetts-New York district 
system, then in use in all eastern states, was adopted that schools might 
be organized where needed and wanted, and over this a Middle- Western 
form of rudimentary county educational organization was superim- 
posed, with a view to coordinating district control and regulating 
expenditures. There was, for a time, some tendency to try the town- 
ship form of organization, then just adopted to displace the district 
system in Indiana, but this was early abandoned as being uiLsuited to 
the conditions and needs of so sparsely settled a state. This general 
form of combined district-county educational organization has ever 
since continued, though with a slowly growing tendency, as the defects 
of the district system have become more and more evident, to transfer 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 3b 

powers and duties from the district trustees to the county and state 
educational authorities, that increased efficiency and better educational 
orijranization may be secured. 

The Constitution of 1879 strengthened county educational organiza- 
tion by abolishing the State Board of Education and State Board of 
Examiners, and giving to county and city boards of education the right 
to select textbooks and to examine and certificate teachers. Five years 
later, when the new Constitution was amended to provide for an ex 
officio State Board of Education, it was made the duty of the Legislature 
to "provide for a Board of Education in each county of the state." 
This constitutional provision has ever since remained, and all subsequent 
legislation has tended to strengthen the powers and increase the duties 
of the county superintendent of schools by transferring to him powers 
formerly exercised by the district school authorities. The right to 
examine and certificate teachers and to select textbooks was taken 
away first. The annual district school meeting, which elected the 
trustees, dictated the school policy of the district, and voted the district 
tax soon followed; trustees were ordered elected for three-year terms 
instead of one; and the school meeting was later superceded by a 
combined school and tax election. The supervision of the district 
finances next was taken from the people and given to the county super- 
intendent, treasurer, and auditor. The right of the district meeting 
to direct the trustees as to the employment of the teacher also disap- 
peared. Uniform state laws relating to finance, length of term, subjects 
of instruction, textbooks, sanitary conditions, tax levies, and expendi- 
tures have subtracted further powers. To county boards of education 
were also transferred the right to make the course of study for the 
schools, and to grade and examine the pupils for graduation. Even 
the purchase of supplies, while still left to the district trustees to 
handle, is so regulated by the county authorities that a close supervision 
over expenditures is maintained. The county library system, recently 
created, is another unifying agency, as yet but loosely connected with 
the schools, but capable of a still closer connection ; while the amend- 
ment of the compulsory education law by the 1919 Legislature, 
providing for the appointment of county school attendance officers, was 
another step clearly in the direction of a closer county administration 
of the schools. 

TENDENCIES IN OUR AMERICAN STATES. 
All over the United States this same tendency to curtail the powers 
of the school district has been manifest, as the defects of the early 
district sj-stem have revealed themselves, though the tendency to sub- 
ordinate or abandon the district form of organization has naturally 
gone further in some states than in others. The map which follows 

3—7769 



34 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION*. 

shows the status of L-ounty edin-atioual organization iu the United 
States. From it it will be seen that east of the ^lississippi River the 
once universal district system has been almost entirely abandoned, 
either for a form of town organization, as in New England, a combined 
township-county form to the westward, or the county unit in the south 
and west. California is classed as being in the semi-county-unit class, 
we still retaining the school district as the main unit for educational 
organization, but superimposing over the district organization a rather 
strong type of county supervisor>- control. California has already gone 
so far in superimposing county control that it could easily pass from its 
present form of organization to a pure county-unit tyjje. as is today 
found in Maryland. Utah, or a number of other state-s. 

As a unit for school administration, the district rendered its greatest 
service in the past. As population increases, urban conditions spread 
throughout a state, foreign elements enter it, and modem methods of 
transacting business come into practice, the defects of the district unit 
for school organization and administration become more and more 
evident. As a means for providing for the establishment of schools the 
district system has rendered its service, and there is today little call for 
the continuation, in any large number, of the kind of schools which 
this .system brought into existence and nourished through the critical 
period of the infancy cf our state educational systems. To have a 
fully organized board of school trustees for everj- little school in the 
county — a board endowed by law with corporate rights and important 
financial, legal, and educational powers — is now generally recognized as 
no more necessary, either from a business or an educational point of 
view, than it would be to have a special school board to employ teachers 
and janitors and to manage the financial affairs of every individual 
school house in our cities. In fact, it may be stated as generally recog- 
nized among educational authorities today that it is ju.st such minute 
organization, with the scattering of authority and responsibility, that 
increases the expenses of our schools, makes them ineffective as rural 
institutions, and stands in the way of proper educational organization 
and much needed educational progress. The district unit is too small 
an area in which to provide modem educational facilities, and the 
difficulty of securing cooperative action by the trustees of a number of 
adjacent districts to form a larger and better school is a difficulty that 
is almost insuperable. Even with the best of intentions on the part of 
the local boards of school trustees, they earrj^ on their work with so 
little unity of purpose and so little conception of the real meaning and 
importance of effective educational .service, that the schools they oversee 
too often are limited in scope and outlook, poorly adapted to modem 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 



3» 




36' REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

educational needs, poorly taught and still more poorly supervised, 
and far more costly than there is any reason for their being. 

Experience everywhere has clearly demonstrated that the district 
system is expensive, inelBcient, short-sighted, and unprogressive ; that 
it leads to an unnecessary multiplication of small and inefficient schools, 
utterly unable to minister to the larger rural-life needs of the present ; 
that under it country boys and girls do not have equivalent advantages 
with the boys and girls who live in the cities ; and that it stands today 
as the most serious obstacle in the way of a needed consolidation and 
improvement of our rural schools. With the growth of modern educa- 
tional needs, the slirinkage of the rural families and the introduction 
of much machinery which ha.s displaced "hands," and the coming of 
large foreign elements who need to be cared for in a good school and 
who can not be trusted to Americanize themselves and their children, 
the old district form of school administration has broken down and can 
no longer provide schools suited to the needs of country children and 
the demands of modern life. In consequence intelligent parents every- 
where are leaving the country and moving to town, and leasing their 
farms to foreign-born tenants, and largely to provide better educational 
facilities for their children. 

THE SITUATION IN CALIFORNIA. 
California has 58 counties, and the last report of the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction gives the number of school districts as 3403, for the 
year 1919-20. Of these 2366, or 70 per cent, employ but one teaelier, 
and 83 per cent do not employ over two teachers. The table on the 
opposite page gives details for each county in the state. How many 
districts are town and city schools is not stated, but if the 301 districts 
employing 5 or more teachers be subtracted for town and eity schools, 
a. number of which operate under a board of education and have a 
supervising principal or city superintendent, we shall probably include 
all that should be included. For the 57 counties, not counting San 
Francisco, we elect 57 county superintendents of schools,^ appoint 228 
members of county boards of education, and the people elect approxi- 
mately 10,250 school trustees. That there is any educational need for 
over ten thousand school officials to manage the affairs of our rural and 
small village schools can not be maintained. To conduct the educational 
business of our counties with this number of often uninformed and not 
infrequently uninterested school officials requires an expenditure for 



Un four oountips, operating unrier county charters, the county superintendent of 
schools is appointed by the supervisors in two, elected by a special county board of 
education in one, and elected by a convention of the school trustees in one. San 
Francisco city and county has also ,iust voted (Charter Amendment No. 37) to 
substitute an appointed city superintendent of schools for the elected county superin- 
tendent, it being the last city in the United States to give up this now obsolete 
method for selecting a city superintendent. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 



37 



TABLE I. 

Showing the Number of Small Schools In Each County in the State. 

(Data for 1919-20.) 



Number of schools in county having but 




Alameda . 
Alpine ... 
Amador . 

Butte 

Calaveras 

Colusa 

Contra Costa 
Del Norte 
El Dorado 
Fresno ... 

Glenn 

Humboldt 

Imperial 

Inyo 

Kern 

Kings 

Lake 

Lassen 

f OS Angeles 

Madera 

Marin 

Mariposa 
Mendocino 

Merced 

Modoc 

Mono 

Monterey 

Napa 

Nevada . 

Orange _ 

Placer _- 

Plumas - 

Riverside 

Sacramento 

San Bonito 

San Bernardino 

San Diego 

San Francisco 

San Joaquin 

San Luis Obispo 

San Mateo 

Santa Barbara 

Santa Clara 

Santa Cruz 

Shasta 

Sierra 

Siskiyou 

Solano 

Sonoma 

Stanislaus 

Sutter 

Tehama 

Trinity 

Tulare 

Tuolumne 

Ventura 

Yolo 

Yuba 

The State 



38 REPUKT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

clerical help, bookkeeping, printing, postage, and time that is both large 
and wholly unnecessary. Of the fifty blank report-fonns listed by the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction as printed and supplied 
by the state, one-fifth are for reports from these boards of district 
school trustees. Any county superintendent of schools will testify to 
the necessity for the careful scrutiny of these reports, and often the 
necessity of returning them for correction— sometimes more than once. 

To try to educate these boards of trustees to some understanding and 
appreciation of their work, the state has provided for an annual trustees 
institute, to be held in each county, and to which each district board 
is expected to send one of its members, the board paying him his ex- 
penses for attendance. For the co.st of these institutes w^e have no 
accurate record, but we know that the attendance upon them has not 
been large. For 1919-20 thirty comity superintendents report such 
institutes as held, and at an expense of $4,876.03. If only one-half 
of the boards complied with the law and sent a representative, and we 
estimate an average expense of only $5 for each, $8,750 additional must 
be counted. In other words, at least $13,500 a year are spent today in 
trying to give to one trustee in three some better conception of his 
educational duties. 

The bonding of school districts for small amounts for additions and 
new buildings is another large economic waste. To vote bonds for 
$3,000, as is not uncommonly done, will cost not less than $350 for 
legal expenses, printing, and advertising, and the bonds to sell must 
bear at least a 1 per cent higher interest rate than would county school 
bonds, issued for a similar i)urpose. Were the whole matter of school- 
house construction and maintenance handled by one county educational 
board, and for the county as a unit, cities under boards of education 
excepted, and with an annual tax for buildings and repairs, practically 
all of the present waste for elections, bonding, and interest would be 
saved and better results at the same time obtained. 

When we add to these expenses the very large expense incurred by 
the maintenance of large numbers of small, inefficient, and wholly 
unnecessary schools, the cost of the district system runs up to a very 
large total. Due to increased salaries paid teachers, to increasing costs 
for everything bought and used, but largely to the small size of the 
schools maintained, a school of 10 to 15 children often costs more, and 
usually as much, provided an ecjual length of term is considered, as 
does a city school of 35 to 40 children, whereas the education offered 
is not nearly so good. Experience in other states has clearly demon- 
strated that, under a county-unit form of educational administration, 
from one-fourth to one-third of the teachers in the rural schools of any 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 



39 



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40 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

county can be dispensed with by means of that consolidation of schools 
which inevitably ensues when their administration is directed by one 
county educational board, the per capita cost for education is decreased, 
and the quality of the education provided rural children can be at the 
same time very materially improved. 

Counting the boards of supervisors, who possess some educational 
functions, we have in California the triple-headed educational organ- 
ization for our counties shown by the chart on the preceding page. 

A FUNDAMENTAL REORGANIZATION NEEDED. 

What is needed is a fundamental reorganization and redirection of 
rural and small village education, and along lines which will transform 
such schools into more useful educational and social institutions. This, 
however, can be accomplished onlj" by some authority of larger scope 
and insight than the district school trustee, and by the application to 
the problem of a larger type of administrative experience than that 
represented by district control. To provide properly for the adminis- 
tration of our rural and village schools, to increase their efficiency, to 
decrease their expense, to provide them with ade pate professional super- 
vision, and to enable children in them to enjoy some of the special 
educational advantages which city children today enjoy, demands that 
the administrative experience of our city school systems be applied to 
our counties as well. This would mean the abolition of the small 
school district as a corporate administrative unit, as was done by the 
cities everywhere long ago; the erection of the county, outside of cities, 
into one County-Unit School District: and the management of the 
schools of each county, outside of included cities having boards of 
education and a city superintendent of schools or a supervising prin- 
cipal, as a single financial and educational unit, just as the schools of 
our cities are now managed. Such a fundamental reorganization, care- 
fully worked out for San Mateo County,- is shown in Figures 8 and 9. 
The chief differences between a county-unit sj^stem of schools, such as 
today exist in Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, or Utah, or as 
is shown in Figure 9, and a city school system such as that of Sacra- 
mento, Stockton, or Fresno, would be that the schools would be smaller, 
probably more numerous and farther apart, and that they would be 
organized with special reference to educational efficiency and to the 
needs of rural and village life. 

Nowhere else in our political organization do we retain so small a 
governmental unit as the school district. In the assessment of property. 



=Made by Dr. J. Harold Williams, in 1915, and published by the United States 
Commissioner of Education, as Bulletin 16, 1916, under the title of "Reorganizing a 
County System of Schools." Washington, 1916. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 41 

taxation, rocordino- of deeds and contracts, payment of taxes, building 
of hinhways and bridges, provision of hospital service and poor relief, 
supervision of agricultural work, enforcement of traffic laws, mainten- 
ance of libraries, etc., wt- today use the county or the large city as our 
smallest administrative unit. In some of these matters we are finding 
the county too small, and are transferring certain functions to the 
state to secure bettor administration. There is no reason why the admin- 
istratirn of .so imjiorlant a subject as public education should not be 
conducted en the basis of a unit large enough to ensure educational 
efficiency. The coming of the paved highway and motor transportation 
have given new emphasis to the need for such educational reorganization. 
A transfer to the county-unit for school control could be made in 
California by legislative action, each county, cities under boards of 
education excepted, being declared by law to be one school district and, 
as such, placed under a county board of education for administrative 
control. The present districts would then become attendance sub-dis- 
tricts, capable of being combined and altered by the county board of 
education as the educational needs of the county might seem from time 
to time to require, just as city boards of education alter the attendance 
lines for their different schools. The corporate powers of the present 
districts would be taken from them and transferred to the county boards 
of education, which would assume title to the school property and 
charge of the rural and small town schools of the county. The boards 
of district school tru.stees would disappear, being replaced, perhaps, by 
one appointed attendance-district trustee, or director, with few and 
simple duties, while all educational and financial powers now possessed 
by the 3102 boards of school trustees for the small districts would be 
transferred to the 57 county boards of education and their executive 
officers, the county superintendent of schools, the secretary of the county 
board, and the special supervisors employed to visit and supervise the 
schools. 

THE CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS. 

An attempt has been made in many of our states, during the past 
twenty-five to thirty years, to provide a remedv for the defects of the 
district system by permitting of the consolidation of two or more school 
districts to form a union school, and the transportation of the children 
from the abandoned schools to the larger and better-organized and 
better-taught central school. Here and there in a few progressive com- 
munities some remarkable results have been attained by this plan. 
Where good consolidated schools can be formed they are very desirable. 



42 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMiMlTTKK ON EDUCATION. 



SANAATEOCOUNTT 

3K0WIN6 LOCATION OF SCHOOLS UNDER PRESENT SYJItn 
ONE-TETACHER RURAL SCHOOL 
6 TWO-TEACHER RURAL SCHOOL 
^THREE-TEACHER RURAL SCHOOL 
^ ELEMENTARX 5CH00J VJITH PRINCIFAL 
A HICH 2CH0OL 
@ UNION HISH SCHOOL 




PuOkic Road* 

■^AlLROAOJ 



Fig. 8. Showing San Mateo County Befoke Reorganization. 

(From Williams' study, made in 1915, and published by the United SLatt-s 
Bureau of Education.) This shows a county having 37 elementary schrxil 
districts and three high school districts. 



COUNTV EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIOX. 



43 



(SOUTK ftAN F<?ANCI6CO 



SAN nATfO COUNTY 

5HOWIN6 LOCATION OF SCKOOl^ 
UNDER PR0P05CO PLAN 

^ ELEf^ENTARt SCHOOL WITH PRINCIPU 
® COONTY HI6H SCHOOL 

NUNkBERS INDICATE tsurABERO^ 
TEACHERS IN ELEf^ENTARX SCHOOIA 
COOHTY ^^rTER^VED^ATE SCHOOL 




KAIL ROAD 



Fig. 9. Showing San Mateo County Reorganized. 
(From Williams' study, made in 1915, and published by the United States Bureau 
of Education.) This shows the county reorganized into 13 attendance districts for 
elementary education, and five high school attendance districts. There would also be 
at La Honda an Intermediate School, offering partial hi.^h school work. 



44 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

They materiality increase the efficiency of the instruction, provide oppor- 
tunities for education comparable with those which city children enjoy, 
and reduce the per capita costs for instruction. Even a two-room con- 
solidated school is better than a one-rcom district school, but a four- 
room or a six-room school is still better. In connection with such consoli- 
dated schools "teacherages" can be provided, often by building over 
into a residence an old one-room school building, and these provide 
teachers with homes and serve to attract a much better grade of teachers 
to the rural schools. 

The trouble with the consolidated school idea, as usually carried out, 
is that the consolidated schools are too hard to form, and when formed 
are usually too small. In no district-system state has the consolidation 
of schools made any large headway, for the reason that the people of 
the districts, and their trustees, cannot be educated up to the advan- 
tages of large consolidations fast enough, and for the further reason 
that the laws usually require an affirmative vote of the people of the 
districts, and mistaken conceptions, real-estate ambitions, and an erron- 
eous local pride usually block constructive action. For example, Cali- 
fornia has had such a permissive law for the past eighteen years, but 
to 1919-20 only 59 consolidated elementary school districts have been 
formed under the law, and most of these have been too small.^ While 
the consolidation of schools is a desirable movement, the defects of the 
idea for solving the educational and financial problems surrounding the 
education of children in the country lie in the difficulty of securing 
action, the slowness of action under the plan, and the fact that most 
consolidations so far formed have been too small and in time will need 
to be done over again. Wliile fully acknowledging the advantages of 
the consolidation movement, where it can be carried out in an efifeetive 
manner, the real remedy, nevertheless, lies in the substitution of a 
county-unit form of school administration by the Legislature, rather 
than in waiting for voluntary consolidation by the districts. Only this 
will ensure the provision of a.dequate consolidated schools, where needed 
and possible, within any reasonable period of time, and at the same 
time provide the needed unification of school administration in our 
counties. 

A COUNTY-UNIT PLAN OF ORGANIZATION. 

From a study of our best American experience in county-unit school 
organization and administration, the following may be stated as contaiii- 

^During the present year a still larger number of consolidations have been formed 
caused almost entirely by the teacher shortage. Most of these haye been merely the 
union of two neighboring schools, so that all children might be taught, and can 
scarcely be considered as real consolidations. In the best sense of the term Cali- 
fornia has as yet practically no consolidated schools, and few are likely so long as the 
district system of management is retained. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 45 

ing the essentials of a good form of eouiity-unit educational reorganiza- 
tion, as applied to California. 

I. General Control. 

1. Abolition of the school districts as separate corporate bodies, and 
the consolidation, for purposes of administration, of all school districts 
in the county, outside of cities, into one county school district. Each 
county would then have but one county school district, with attendance 
subdistricts, and one or more city school districts. 

2. Abolition of the present professional county boards of education, 
and provision for the election of lay county boards of education, of 
five members, elected by the people of the county at large, or by election 
districts, and for four-year terms and so classified that the smallest 
possible number change each year.'* This board would occupy for the 
county a position exactly analagous to a city board of education for 
a city. 

3. If put into effect by legislative act at once, the present county 
superintendents of schools would become the executive officers of the 
new county boards of education, but, as soon as the constitution can 
be amended, such a double-headed arrangement should be abandoned. 
After such amendment, each county board of education would appoint 
the county superintendent of schools, or county commissioner of educa- 
tion, under provisions of a general state law, and fix his salary. In 
making this appointment they vshould have the same freedom in selection 
as have city boards of education or boards of high school trustees today. 
Such officer should enjoy the same rights, tenure, and privileges as a 
city superintendent of schools, and have somewhat the same adminis- 
trative and supervisory duties and powers. 

4. Each county board of education should succeed to the title of the 
school property of the districts, outside of the cities, and have power 
to consolidate, sell, build, repair, and purchase school property. 

5. Each count}^ board of education should also assume charge of the 
property and administration of any county high schools existing or 
later established, and any county vocational schools, county agricul- 
tural high schools, or county parental schools to be established, and 
some plan should be M'orked out for bringing union district high schools 
not in cities into a general county plan for providing secondary educa- 
tion for all children of the county. 

6. Each county board of education to be directed to make a careful 
study of the educational needs of the county, and its educational resour- 
ces, and in this to be assisted by experts detailed for the work from the 



*It would be still better if constitutional provisions did not prohibit, if the term of 
office were made five years, one to go out of oflice each year. 



46' 



REPORT, OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 





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COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 47 

State Departnieiit of Ediu-ation. On the basis of such study the county 
boards should proceed to a gradual reorganization of the school system 
of the county, with a view to improving- the educational advantages 
offered and if possible reducing the cost. 

II. Business and Clerical Control. 

1. Each county board of education to appoint a secretary and business 
manager, who shall act as secretary for the board and conduct the 
clerical, statistical, and financial work connected with the county educa- 
tional office. The county board to fix the salary, and determine the 
assistance needed for each such officer. 

2. The secretary to have charge of the office, make all purchases, draw 
all warrants, purchase and distribute supplies, and have general over- 
sight of the janitor and repair work of the schools. 

3. The secretary to be the custodian of all legal papers belonging to 
the county board of education, to give all required notices, to administer 
oaths, to register all teachers' certificates, to keep a set of books covering 
all financial transactions, to sign contracts as directed, and to perform 
such other similar duties as may be assigned to him. In a sense he 
would succeed to a large part of the present duties of the county super- 
intendents, leaving them free for the more important educational duties 
of school supervision, at present largely neglected. 

4. Each county board of education to approve an annual budget for 
the schools under its control, and to recommend the annual county 
school tax and notify the supervisors of the amount to be levied. This 
tax to include all other educational tax levies for cities and high school 
districts within the county, and the income from such tax to be dis- 
tributed to such according to law. 

III. Educational Control. 

1. Each county board of education, on the recommendation of the 
county superintendent of schools, to appoint all teachers needed for the 
county, outside of cities, and to fix and order paid their salaries; also 
to appoint special teachers and supervisors, janitors, attendance officers, 
and such other educational employees as may be needed. 

2. Either separately, or in connection with a city or an adjoining 
county, also to appoint county attendance officers, county school physi- 
cians and nurses, and any special teachers needed. 

3. Similarly, each county board to have power, singly or in coopera- 
tion, to establish a county agricultural high school, a county junior 
college, or any other type of special county .school that may be author- 



48 



RErORT OF LKGISr.ATIVK COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIOX. 




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COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 49 

ized by law, and also to approve all new projects for the extension or 
change of the system of schools. 

IV. Function of the Superintendent of Schools. 

In addition to the powers and duties previously enumerated, the 
county superintendent of schools to have the following powers and 
duties : — 

1. To act as the executive officer of the county board of education, 
and the head of the county department of education, and to execute, 
in person or through subordinates, all educational policies decided upon 
by the county board. 

2. To represent the state educational authorities in the county ; to 
decide disputes under the school law, subject to appeal to the Legal 
Division of the State Educational Department; to exercise supervisory 
control over all schools under the jurisdiction of the county board of 
education ; to nominate and assign all teachers and principals, and 
supervise their work ; to visit and supervise the schools of the county ; 
to hold local and county teachers' institutes, and direct the reading 
circle work ; and to labor in all practicable ways for the improvement of 
the education given to country and town boys and girls. 

3. To recommend changes in the organization and distribution of the 
schools; to oversee the preparation of all courses of study used in 
schools under his jurisdiction, and to approve the same ; to approve for 
purchase all school supplies and supplemental books; and to prepare 
and issue an annual printed report as to the work of the schools of 
the county. 

V. Combination of Counties, or Counties and Cities. 

The Legislature should provide means under which two small and 
adjacent counties may be combined for such county-unit administration, 
or under which a city may join with the county to provide a single 
administration for all of the schools of the county. 

The form of organization, and the relationships, which would ensue 
under such a county-unit plan as is sketched above, are shown in the 
diagram given on the opposite page. 

It ought to be emphasized that such a county-unit form of educational 
organization as is here outlined does not in itself involve the abandon- 
ment of a single existing school. The county-unit form of organization 
is essentially a business and educational plan for the better administra- 
tion of the schools of the county, either existing or later to be. Once 
applied, however, it will naturally result in the gradual replacement of 
many small and unnecessary schools, prevent the further splitting of 

4—7769 



50 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

districts to form new small schools, and in time en.sure the erection, at 
central places, of new and larger and better school buildings, and the 
transportation of the children to the new central schools. The increased 
value of the education that can be so provided, and the decreased per 
capita cost for schooling that would result under the county-unit plan, 
would insure the gradual consolidation of the schools into larger units 
in a way that will never be possible under the district system. All that 
the county-unit plan of organization does, at first, is to apply the admin- 
istrative experience of our cities to county school control, to substitute 
centralized administration over the schools of a county, open the way 
for educational and business reorganization, and make possible a I'apid 
improvement in educational conditions throughout a county. 

HOW TO INSTITUTE SUCH A REORGANIZATION. 

There are two methods by means of which such a form of educational 
reorganization could.be instituted in this state. The first plan, which 
has been the plan followed by most states which have made the change, 
is for the Legislature to order, by general state law, that the change 
be made after a certain time. The second method, followed by Utah,^ 
is for the Legislature to adopt an optional county-unit law, at first to 
apply only to those counties adopting it by vote, all counties being 
required to vote on the question the first year after its enactment, and 
later, after its somewhat general introduction, to order it compulsory 
for all and apply it to the state as a whole. Various forms of county- 
unit organization could be provided for, much as does the law organizing 
high school districts, so that there might be county-unit school districts 
which included no city, others which included a small city but not 
large ones, still others in which the city and county districts are one. 
and joint county school districts which included two adjacent counties. 
Manifestly such a county as Alpine would have alone no need for a 
county-unit form of educational organization, and ought, for educational 
purposes, to be attached to some contiguous county, ^lanifestly also 
San Francisco should not be included in the plan. 

The steps in the process would be about as follows : 
1. The abolition, by law, of the present professional county boards 
of education, and the creation in their stead of a new type of lay county 
boards of education, to be elected from the county, for four-year terms, 
at a school election, and to occupy in county educational affairs a posi- 
tion similar to that held by city boards of education for city school 



'In Utah an optional county-unit law was enacted in 1905, to meet tlie wishes of 
one county desiring to organize under such a law. By 1915 nearly two-thirds of the 
counties in the state had voted to accept the county-unit law, and the Legislature then 
ordered it required for all counties. By the 1920 census the population of Utah 
averaged 5.4 to the square mile, while that of California averaged 21.9. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 51 

ail'aiivs, ami also sDiiu'what analagous \o that held l)y tlii' State Board 
of Education for the whole state. 

2. For the present the elected county superintendents of schools 
should be designated to act as tlie chief executive officers for the new 
county boards of education, just as the State Superintendent does for 
the State Board of Education. However, as this will create the same 
doul)le-headed type of educational organization for our counties that we 
now have in our state educational organization, this condition should 
l)e changed liy constitutional amendment as soon as possible, and for 
the sanu^ reasons dctaih'd in the preceding cliapter. Ai'ticle IX, section 
;{, of our stati' Constitution now re(piires the election, by the qualified 
electors, of a county superintendent of schools, at each gul)ernatorial 
election for each county in the state, unless provided for otherwise under 
the provisions of Article XI of the Constitution, permitting of county 
charters. Five counties have now^ availed themselves of this provision.^ 
Any general county-unit law should provide means for the transfer, 
for educational purposes, by any county from the eounty charter provis- 
ions to the uniform state law for educational reorganization. Article 
IX, section 3 of the state Constitution should be replaced by a new 
section reading somewhat as follows : 

Sec. 3. The Legislature shall provide for the election or appointment 
of a county superintendent of schools for each county in this state. 

3. The abolition of the district system of school organization by insti- 
tuting in its place a comprehensive form qf county-unit school organiza- 
tion, embodying the essential features of the plan which has been out- 
lined in this chapter. 

The above steps the Committee believe should be taken for this state 
as rapidly as can be done. 

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In summary form, the findings and recommendations of the Com- 
mittee are as follows : 

1. California has for long been moving toward a modification of the 
district system for school control by the gradual introduction of county 
control, and today represents an intermediate stage in development. 

2. The district iniit for .school administration has done its best work. 



'Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, where tlie supervisors appoint the 
county superintendent, as a county officer : Tehama County, where the superintendent 
is elected at a convention of the school trustees of the county, after the Pennsylvania 
plan ; Butte County, where a special county board of education is elected for the one 
purpose of selecting and appointing the county superintendent ; and San I^rancisco 
combined city and county, which has just voted to substitute a superintendent 
appointed by the board of education, with freedom to select him from anywhere and 
to fix his salary, for the election of a citizen by popular vote, which it has liad for 
so long. 



52 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

it is expensive and ineffective, and present-day needs in rural education 
call for its abolition. 

3. The logical unit for school administration, as in other governmental 
affairs, is the county, and a transition to this in California would be 
easy, and should be made by legislative direction. 

4. The consolidation of schools idea is good, but voluntary action by 
the districts is too slow and the unions formed are too small. 

5. A fundamental reorganization of the administration of rural and 
village education is called for, and a plan for such is sketched. 

6. The steps in the process would be, and these the Committee recom- 
mends be taken, as follows : 

(a) Abolition by law of the present professional county boards of 
education, and the creation of lay boards, with new powers, in their 
stead. 

(b) The abolition of the district system of school administration, and 
the enactment, in its place, of an optional comprehensive county-unit 
law. 

(c) The amendment of article IX, section 3 of the Constitution, to 
provide for the appointment of county superintendents of schools. 



THE PROBLEM OF TEACHER TRAINING, 53 

Chapter III. 

THE PROBLEM OF TEACHER TRAINING. 

THE CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT. 

A problem which early attracted attention in this state was the 
problem of teacher training. As early as 1862 the first state normal 
school, afterwards located at San Jose, was established. There were at 
that time but twelve public and eight or nine private normal schools in 
the United States, and all of these were in the section east of the Mis- 
sissippi River and north of the Ohio and the Potomac. The following 
year (1863) the fir.st state aid for teachers' institutes, another new edu- 
cational idea found only in the same locality as the early normal schools, 
was granted by a state law which at the same time enacted new regu- 
lations for the certification of teachers for the schools. California was 
the first state west of the Missi.ssippi Eiver to provide for these two new 
institutions for teacher training. The inspiration for them came from 
teachers migrating from New York and New England, then the centers 
of educational progress in the United States. The lead which California 
then took in the preparation of teachers has ever since been retained. 
Since 1862 other state normal schools have been established, as follows : 

1881— Los Angeles State Normal School. (In 1919 transformed 
into a southern branch of the University of California.) 

1887— Chico State Normal School. 

1897— San Diego State Normal School. 

1899 — San Francisco State Normal School. 

1909 — Santa Barbara State Normal School of Manual Arts and 
Home Economics. (In 1919 changed to Santa Barbara 
State Normal School.) 

1911 — Fresno State Normal School. 

1913— Humboldt (Areata) State Normal School. 
Each of the normal schools forms a part of the public school system, 
and each is under a board of five appointed tru-stees, with the Gov- 
ernor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction as an ex, officio mem- 
bers. In all matters relating to entrance requirements, courses of study, 
and graduation requirements, these schools have recently been made 
subject to regulation by the State Board of Education. 

These institutions, together with the migration to California in the 
past two decades of many normal-trained teachers from eastern states, 
have served, coupled with good finance, to give this state one of the 
highest percentages of trained teachers to be found in any state of 
the Union. In 1920, despite recent losses, this still stood at 79.65 per 
cent, measured for the state as a whole. The map on the following page 



54 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



PEHCENTAGE OF THAIKED 
TEACHERS 
in each County in 

CALIFOP."IA 

1919-20 




Etate iJormal Schools 



***■ Chief Bailroad Lines 



Fig. 12. Showing Location of the State Normal, Schools, and the 
Percentage of Trained TB'Achers in Each County. 



TIIK I'ROBLEM OF TEACHER TRAINING. 55 

shows the i)oi-ceutaiii' of trained teachers teaching in the elementary 
and high schools of this state in the autumn of 1920, by counties. The 
range is from 98.10 per cent in Santa Clara County, to 21.15 per cent 
in Tuolumne County. The map also .shows the location of the state 
normal schools, mountains, and chief railway lines, and it will be noted 
that the number of trained teachers in any county is largely dependent 
upon the ease with which students from that county can reach a state 
normal school. Tlie indication from this map, showing the distribution 
of trained teachers, is that the general diffusion of teacher-training 
institutions over this state has lieen wise. Other states have had the 
same experience. 

THE RECENT CRISIS IN TEACHER TRAINING. 

Up to 1917 the normal schools of California were filled with students, 
but since that year these institutions have experienced a serious decline 
both in the number of students and of graduates. The same falling-oft' 
has been true for other states, as well as for California. The quality of 
the normal school student also has declined. In 1913-14: the normal 
schools of California graduated 1,539 teachers, whereas in 1919-20 the 
number was approximately 1,100. In the whole United States there 
Avere 13,681 teachers graduated in 1916, and but 9,514 in 1919. In 
all states, too, there has been a serious shortage of teachers for the 
schools since 1917. Though there has been some improvement since the 
autumn of 1919, yet at the opening of the present school year (1920-21), 
the United States Commissioner of Education estimated that the schools 
of the nation were still short approximately 75,000 elementary teachers 
and 15,000 high school teachers, while to supply any type of teacher 
for the schools, standards had been so lowered that from one-third to 
two-fifths of the teaching staff' of the nation were seriously lacking in 
preparation. Inadequately prepared and paid as teachers were before 
the war, the rise in prices has made professional training on the old 
pay standards largely out of the question. In consequence, the normal 
schools no longer attract as they once did. Young people, who five or 
ten years ago would naturally have turned to teaching, are now draw'n 
to other lines of usefulness or to other types of institutions for study. 
Our colleges and univei-sities are crowded as never before in their his- 
tory; our normal schools are depleted in attendance as they have not 
been in the past quarter of a century. While California normal schools 
are in better condition as regards students than those of most eastern 
states, the same causes and consequences are nevertheless felt here. 

One of the mo>t serious phases of the prol)lem of providing trained 
teachers for the scliools lies in the continual loss of those wlio represent 



56' REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

the best trained and experienced members of the teaching profession. 
In this California has suffered as have other states. The war directed 
new attention to the teacher as an organizer and an executive, and this 
business executives have been quick to recognize. Within recent years 
hundreds of our best educated and best trained teachers have been drawn 
from the work of the school by reason of much better positions in the 
business world. In consequence, the teaching profession has been 
steadily losing its best trained and most competent teachers, as well as 
failing to attract an adequate supply of new material to its training 
institutions. 

PAY OF NORMAL SCHOOL INSTRUCTORS. 
Our normal schools, too, on the wholly inadequate salary schedule they 
have been forced to maintain, also can not retain their best instructors 
or replace their losses with persons of the proper grade of training. In 
California, the salary schedules in our normal schools have been so 
low that they have scarcely been able to compete for instructors, during 
the past half dozen years, with our middle-rank high schools. When 
one considers that the normal school is training teachers for the future, 
and that the character of our teachers and schools ten or fifteen years 
from now will be largely determined by the character of the instructors 
in our normal schools today, the seriousness of the situation will be 
evident. All in all, it is not surprising that practically no men are 
longer attracted to our normal schools for training as teachers, or that 
the best types of women prefer to go to college where they may find a 
larger outlook and better instruction. 

RECENT STUDIES OF THE PROBLEM. 
A nation-wide survey of the situation, made during the present year, 
with replies from 34 states, gave the following as reasons and remedies : 

Reasons for the teacher shortage. 

1. Low salaries and poor working conditions. 

2. Better opportunities in other lines than teaching. 

3. Both men and women prefer to study in a college, where they 

find better instructors and a wider range of instruction from 
which to choose. 

4. Pligh school teachers are usually college graduates, and they, 

consciously or unconsciously, deflect students to the colleges. 

5. Lack of discrimination in electing and paying teachers by 

boards of school trustees. 

6. Outside of the larger city school systems, and the high school, 

no career for men in educational work. 

Remedies for the situation. 

1. Better salaries and working conditions. The teacher-shortage 
problem at bottom is economic and social, 



THE PROBLEM OF TEACHER TRAINING. 57 

2. Improvement in educational organization and administration 

that will better open up educational service as a career. 

3. Better teaching facilities, and broader opportunities for study 

in the teacher-training schools. 

4. Collegiate status for the normal schools, with power to grant 

a degree. 

5. Materially higher pay for normal school teachers, and the 

employment of a much better type. 

6. More rigid and better organized certification laws, to weed out 

incompetents and place more ])remium on training. 

There also appeared, within the past six months, the long-awaited 
study of "The Professional Preparation of Teachers for American 
Public Schools," made by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 
ment of Teaching.^ This study was begun six years ago, at the request 
of the Governor of Missouri, and was based primarily on a study of the 
tax-supported training schools of that state. The study, though, was 
extended to cover the teacher-training problem in the United States, 
and the principles laid down in this report are intended to be generally 
applicable elsewhere. The state was found to maintain five state normal 
schools, two large city training schools in St. Louis and Kansas City, 
and a school of education at the University of Missouri. Each was 
under the direction of a separate board of trustees; each worked 
without reference to the work of the others, or to any state plan ; there 
was practically no state oversight or control ; there was duplication of 
effort and lack of extensions into new lines; the standards maintained 
varied greatly, and for the normal schools were lower than they should 
be; the instructors lacked in education and professional preparation; 
and the type of teachers sent out was much below what the present-day 
needs of our public schools demand. The situation in Missouri was 
felt to be typical, and not essentially ditferent from that found in 
other than a few of the better situated of our states. 

To meet the situation in Missouri, and elsewhere, the report 
recommends a unification and centralization of control of all teacher- 
training institutions in the state, and under one central board; the 
extension of the normal schools into four-year Teachers' Colleges, that 
they may give a better type of training for teaching; the unification of 
the organization and work of these Teachers' Colleges with the work 
of the School of Education of the University of IMissouri, the Teachers' 
Colleges being regarded as branches of the University; and the 
ultimate fusion of this unified control with that of the State Depart- 
ment of Education, after it has been better developed. The report 
recognizes that individual states must solve the problem of control 

^Bulletin No. 14 of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 
475 pages. The Carnegie Foundation, 576 Fifth Avenue, New Yorlt City. 



58 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

in accordance with local development and conditions, but stresses the 
importance of better teaching staffs for the normal schools, a lengthen- 
ing of the course of instruction to four years, the granting of a profes- 
sional degree to those who complete it, and a unified control and coordi- 
nation of the work of the teacher-training institutions of the state. 

THE CREATION OF TEACHERS' COLLEGES. 

The Report devotes much space to pointing out that the change in the 
character of American education, which has been taking place slowly 
during the past two decades, and which has been greatly accelerated by 
the World War, is a change that involves primarily the teacher. This 
fact the American people have up to now largely failed to grasp. We 
have said much about education, and measured school success in terms 
of new school buildings, costly equipment, and totals expended, but have 
failed to grasp the fact that our teachers are the key to educational 
progress. Expenditures for education are largely meaningless except 
as expresed in the superior quality and skill of individual teachers. 
One result of the war we have .just ended has been to call new attention 
to the importance of the teacher in our national welfare and progress. 
If the billions we have spent to preserve democracy abroad are not to 
be wasted, millions must now be spent at home to improve the character 
of the teachers in whose hands the future of this nation largely rests. 
To attract the best minds to the teaching service, men and women 
"fully informed as to what the rising generation may become and 
dedicated to such achievement, ' ' we must train them thoroughly for the 
teaching service and offer to them "the opportunity to attain to dis- 
tinguishing rewards of success through teaching careers." To train 
them as the future demands that our teachers should be trained calls 
for the contact, during the period of their training, with well-educated 
and large-visioned instructors, and to attract them to the training insti- 
tutions the schools must offer a type of education suited to the new 
needs of a rapidly changing world. The calling, too, must offer eco- 
nomic rewards comparable with other fields of public and private serv- 
ice. A new type of teacher-training institution and a materially 
increased salary schedule for teachers are the immediate needs. 

It seems to be generally admitted, by students, of the subject, that 
the older type of two-year normal school has passed its maximum period 
of usefulness. Technically considered it was a trade school, giving a 
short vocational preparation for but one line of service. The new 
conditions we face and the new needs in our national life in the decades 
to come demand a new type of teacher-training institution — one that 
will give a much broader and more extended type of professional prepa- 
ration, and better fit young people for the educational service of the 



THE PROBLEM OF TEACHER TRAINING. 59 

state. The experience in such states as Iowa and Colorado, where 
the state normal seliool was transformed a decade or more ago into a 
four-year Teachers' College, has been clearly on the side of such 
extended training. The experience of Ohio, where two old state colleges 
were transformed into combined teachei's' colleges and colleges otter- 
ing a cultui-al education, lias been equally convincing. Today it may 
be said to be an accepted ]n-inciple of action that the normal schools, 
in states which can afford a salary schedule for teachers which will 
warrant such an extension of training, should gradually but soon be 
transformed into four-year institutions, offering a degree to their 
graduates, and known as Teachers' Colleges. This transformation has 
already been made in the city normal schools of most of our larger north- 
ern cities, city Teachers' Colleges being the term now generally used, 
and the possession of a collegiate degree is rapidly becoming a prerequi- 
site for a position as teacher in our larger city elementary school sys- 
tems. The movement for such a transformation is also well under way 
in a dozen or more of our states. 

It may also be said to have recently come to be accepted as a belief 
on the part of students of the subject that the only hope of again filling 
our normal schools with students, attracting to them any men students, 
or drawing into teaching in the elementary grades that superior class 
of M'omen who now go to the colleges, lies in the expansion upward 
and outward of the normal school work so as to offer a four-year course 
for elementary teaching, leading to a professional degree, and parallel 
with it at least a two-year Junior College course of general training 
that will be ecjually open to those who intend and who do not intend 
to teach. The ultimate development probably will be a full four-year 
college, with a nundier of parallel lines of work but with preparation for 
teaching as the central idea, somewhat after the Colorado, Iowa, and 
Ohio plans. Such a development for California, as we shall point out 
in the next chapter, would possess very decided advantages for this 
state, and would extend Junior College and collegiate education to our 
l)eople in a broader way and under conditions far more favorable than 
ever could be done by depending on one central institution at Berkeley. 

NORMAL SCHOOL CONTROL AND DEVELOPMENT IN CALIFORNIA. 

Assuming that this state decides to expand our normal schools, gradu- 
ally, into four-year Teachers' Colleges, and to give them power to con- 
fer a collegiate degree, which is what this Committee recommends, the 
(|uestion of authorization and control, as well as grounds, buildings, 
and finance, will need to be considered. It has seemed to your Com- 
mittee that such a development ought to take place gi-adually, ought 
to be approved at each step by some central board, and that the ulti- 



60 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

mate form of control brought about probably should be different from 
that for the earlier stages of the process. The development which the 
Committee came to conceive of as possible and desirable for this state 
may be summarized, briefly, about as follows : 

Assuming that it is decided that the normal schools of California 
should be developed gradually into four-year Teachers' Colleges, with 
degi^ee-grantiug powers, it has seemed to your Committee very desirable 
that uniform legislation should not be enacted, transforming the nor- 
mal schools of the state into Teachers' Colleges, and also that the differ- 
ent institutions should not be allowed to go to the Legislature and 
engage in a scramble for funds with which to make such development. 
The beginnings of control have already been made for this state by 
giving the State Board of Education power to regulate the admission 
requirements, the courses of instruction, and the standards for gradu- 
ation of the normal schools of the state. This power, your Committee 
feels, should be extended, and the State Board of Education should be 
given authority to control the gradual expansion of the normal schools 
of the state. In making this expansion, possibilities and needs in laud 
and buildings and in teaching equipment, as well as finances, must be 
taken into consideration. 

The development, too, need not be and probably should not be uni- 
form, nor should the final results be uniform either. On the con- 
trary there is much to be gained by a partial specialization of the 
future Teachers' Colleges of this state. For example, San Francisco, 
as well as San Jose and Los Angeles, might be developed into institu- 
tions primarily designed to train a high grade of kindergarten and ele- 
mentary teacher for the city school systems of this state; Fresno and 
Chico might emphasize agriculture and training for work in the 
consolidated county schools which should be developed under a county- 
unit system of school administration ; Areata might give special atten- 
tion to the needs of the small school, and develop a less specialized type 
of teacher; some one, or possibly two, of the schools should specialize 
on the preparation of teachers for atypical children, and of teachers 
for special types of education, etc. Other specializations could be 
worked out, from time to time, as needs, equipment, and teaching 
force would permit. The Committee feels strongly that the normal 
schools or Teachers' Colleges of this state should be parts of a broadly- 
conceived state system, and not a series of local and largely unrelated 
schools, each pursuing its own way, and that there is no need for 
unnecessary duplication or for uniformity. 

To this end the Committee recommends that the State Board of Edu- 
cation be given control by law over the further development and organi- 



THE PROBLEM OP TEACHER TRAINING. 61 

zation of the uonnal schools of this state ; that it be given authority to 
recommend expansions in the budgets for these schools; and that it 
not try to develop all at the same time, or at the same speed; that it 
be given authority to approve specializations of the profCvSsional work; 
that the schools ordinarily should be advanced to three-year schools 
first, and to four-year institutions only as the character of the faculty 
and their salaries, the lil)rary and laboratory equipment at hand for 
collegiate work, and the needs of the situation warrant such develop- 
ment; and that the State Board of Education be given authority to 
say when such development shall warrant the granting of professional 
collegiate degrees. ^ To guide the State Board in this development and 
to supervise it there would need to be created a Commissioner for 
Teacher Training, as a part of the State Department of Education 
(Division 5), as recommended in Chapter I, page 27. 

ULTIMATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE CONTROL. 

The above development will require some time, probably six to eight 
5'eare, and possibly a decade, though a beginning should be made now. 
When this evolution is complete we shall have a series of eight regional 
colleges— this counts the institution at Los Angeles, as it seems to the 
Committee that it should be included, unless it is to be developed into 
a second state university — each primarily professional in purpose, but 
each capable, as we shall point out in the next chapter, of serving the 
state as Junior Colleges and institutions of collegiate rank as well. 
That California will have need for this number of Teachers' Colleges, 
to supply the state with trained teachers, there can be little question; 
that each of these institutions could do Junior College work, to the 
mutual advantage of the communities in which they are located and to 
themselves, we shall point out later on ; and that a state with the 
future of California, possessed as it is of few private colleges,-^ could also 
utilize this number of institutions for collegiate work in part, there can 
also be but little question. 

By the time this development has been brought about, if not before, 
some very definite relationship should either be established between the 
State University and these colleges, or they should be given independent 
organization and control. The State University now is not a part of the 
state's school system, being provided for in a separate section (article 



^The State Board of Education would thus occupy a position somewhat analogous 
to the Railroad Commission, granting "certificates of public convenience and necessity" 
as evidence of need, and ability to meet such need, could be produced. 

'California's increase in population during the past decade (44.1 per cent) was 
exceeded by but two states in the Union. By 1930 this state should have a total 
population of over five millions of people, and approximately a million school children. 
Ohio, with a total population of but little more, contains 42 colleges and universities. 
The State of New York, with a population, outside of Greater New York, about 
equal to the present population of California, has 24 colleges and universities, not 
counting any in New York City or Brooklyn. 



62 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

IX, section 9) of the state's Constitutidn, and not enumerated in article 
IX, section 6, as one of the parts of the public school system of the 
state. Had the provision proposed for nuiversity support been added 
to the Constitution by the voters at the last general election it would 
have increased still further the independence of the State University 
from both the public school system on the one hand and the Legislature 
on the other. The State University, as now organized, in a sense con- 
stitutes "a state within a state." Though not organically related to 
the public school system, it has in the past exercised an excessive conti-ol 
over the high schools, and has shown ))ut little disposition to cooperate 
with the normal schools. 

Two ])lans for future Teachers' College control liave seemed ])()ssiblo 
to the ('ommittee. From one point of view it has seemed to your Com- 
mittee that this organic separation ought before long to cease; that, 
the Constitution of this state should ultimately l)e so amended as to 
make the State University a part of the state's public school system; 
that the state normal schools, when developed into Teachers' Colleges, 
should be definitely related to the School of Education in the State 
University ; that the degrees conferred in all state institutions should be 
by authority of one common l)oard ; and that the higher education of this 
state should be placed in closer, cooperative relations with the public 
school system of the state. Just how^ this should be done the Commit- 
tee does not attempt to say, leaving such a relationship to the future 
for detailed working out. In Montana, the entire public school system, 
from kindergartens to universities, has been placed under the control 
of the State Board of Education, but the experiment has not been par- 
ticularly successful and the plan is not generally favored by those 
who have given most study to the subject. In Kansas one board for 
all the higher institutions was created, with still less satisfactory results. 
In Idaho the appointed State Commissioner of Education and the State 
Board of Education control all the higher institutions of the state. The 
whole <piestion of coordination and control is as yet in the experimental 
stage, and the best plan for this state probably lies, for a time at least, 
in a continuance of the separate institutional boards, for business and 
faculty control, with some form of cooperation estal)lished between them 
and the other parts of the state school system in all educational matters. 

An alternative plan considered by the Committee, and for this state 
passibly a better plan, would be to create, by law, the State Teachers' 
College of California, and with the State Board of Education as its board 
of regents. This institution would include within itself all the normal 
schools or Teachers' Colleges now or hereafter established in this state. 
It might also include by affiliation all institutions in this state engaged 



THE PROBLEM OP TEACHER TRAINING. 63 

in any form of teacher training, and accredited by the State Board of 
Education. Each state normal school or Teachers' College would then 
exist as a branch of the State Teachers' College of California, diplomas 
of graduation and degrees would l)e granted by the State Board of Edu- 
cation, and all teaching credentials issued by accredited institutions, in 
this state and in other states, would be under the supervision of the 
State Board of Education. This plan offers a simple and effective means 
of control, and, so long as the State University remains outside of the 
public school system of the state as enumerated in the Constitution 
(article IX, section 6), is for this state probably the better one to follow. 

THE EXAMINATION AND CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS. 

Closely connected with tlie problem of teacher training is the question 
of the examination and certification of teachers for the public schools of 
the state. It may be stated to be the growing practice of our American 
states to change these two functions from local to state control, and to 
make examinations uniform and certificates valid throughout the state. 
The written examinations for the grammar grade certificate now given 
by each county in this state, and taken by but few persons,"* are a waste 
of time and effort and money. The control of these should be trans- 
ferred to the State Board of Education, and turned over to the Examin- 
ing, Certificating, and Pensioning Division (No. 6 — See Chapter I) to 
handle for the state as a whole. The examinations should be made uni- 
form, be given at eight or ten places in the state, on certain dates ; the 
papers should be graded at Sacramento ; and uniform credentials should 
be issued to those who pass and upon these the county educational 
authorities would be expected to issue grammar grade certificates. If 
the form of county educational organization recommended in Chapter II 
should be adopted, such a change in the source of the examination 
would be very desirable, as the new type of lay county boards of edu- 
cation proposed would not be competent to give such examinations, and 
the county supervisory officers ought not to do so. A fundamental prin- 
ciple in educational administration is that those who supervise instruc- 
tion in the schools ought not to examine and certificate those who are to 
be employed to teach under them. Regardless, though, of whether or 
not the county-u"it form of education organization be adopted for this 
state, the examination and certification of teachers ought to be changed 
into a state function, and placed under the control of the State Board 
of Education, so far as can be done in conformity with the demands 
of section 7 of article IX of the Constitution. 



••In 1919-20, applicants appeared for these examinations in only abovit two-thirds 
of the counties, and only 186 grammai'-grade certificates were granted by the 39 
counties issuing them on examination. Of the 186 issued, 78 were issued by 5 counties. 



64 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

BETTER PLAN FOR THE CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS NEEDED. 

The entire plan for the certification of teachers in this state has 
seemed to the Committee to be in need of careful revision, with a view- 
to the creation of a better-graded and more rational state certificating 
plan. This the Cominittee did not attempt to do, but it recommends 
that a careful study of the subject to be made and a comprehensive 
state plan be prepared which will correct the defects of the system now 
in use, and that such plan be submitted to the present or a subsequent 
session of the Legislature for approval. The defects of the present 
plan, in the large, are: 

1. The diploma of graduation from a normal school, or a teaching 
credential from a university-, ought not to be unlimited in character, 
until after trial, when it should be changed into a more permanent form 
only on suitable evidence of successful teaching and personal growth. 

2. The life diploma in this state means virtually nothing except that 
the holder has taught somewhere and in some kind of a school for 48 
months, at least 21 of which must have been in California. No require- 
ments as to education or professional growth or further study are made, 
and, instead of singling out the most successful and most highly profes- 
sional teachers in this state, the diploma practically means nothing edu- 
cationally. It ought either to be reformed and made to mean some- 
thing or else entirel}^ abandoned. 

3. The certificates granted, of each grade, are uniform as to value, 
whereas a graded series — (1) trial, (2) full, and (3) permanent — ought 
to be evolved for each type, the step from each to the next higher in the 
series to be accompanied by further evidence as to professional study 
and teaching success. 

The Committee would recommend, therefore, that the State Board of 
Education, acting through the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
be requested to consider the entire matter carefully, and to report, to this 
or a succeeding Legislature a revision of the certification laws of this 
state such as will remedy the above-mentioned defects, and create for 
this state a well-graded series of certificates, each higher one to be 
based en added professional preparation and evidence of successful 
experience. The Committee would also suggest that a graded series of 
supervisory certificates be added to the present list, and it would also 
recommend that State Reading Circle work, after the plan which has 
for so long been successful in Indiana and other middle-western states, 
be added as a means for the further professional education and training 
of teachers in service, and be made in some way required of all teachers 



THE PROBI.EM OP TEACHER TRAINING. 65 

as a condition for continuance in the teaching service. More than half 
the states of the Union now employ Reading Circle work for having 
teachers in service keep np with new professional ideas. 

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In summary form the findings and recommendations of the Committee 
are as follows: 

1. California's early attention to the teacher training problem, 
together with its high salary schedule and attractiveness as a residential 
state, have given it one of the highest percentages of normal-trained 
teachers of any state in the Union. 

2. During the past four j^ears many of the best trained teachers have 
left the schools, and the normal schools have lost seriously in attendance. 

3. Since the War there has been a marked shifting in the attendance 
of young people from the normal schools to the colleges, and this prom- 
ises to be permanent. The normal schools no longer attract. 

4. Recent studies of the teacher-shortage and teacher-training prob- 
lems all point in the direction of enlarging the work of our normal 
schools, changing them in character, and unifying their control. 

5. The War has emphasized the importance of the teacher, and a new 
type of teacher-training institution seems demanded generally to meet 
the enlarged educational needs of the future. With the recent marked 
increase in salaries, too, new demands in teacher preparation can well 
be made. 

6. The Committee recommends the gradual extension of our normal 
schools into four-year Teachers' Colleges, to meet the new educational 
needs in teacher-training, and with power to grant a professional degree. 

7. These institutions should combine Junior College work with teacher 
training, as is sketched further in Chapter IV. 

8. Such extension should not be made all at once, or uniformly for 
all schools, but gradually, as budgets and instructing force and equip- 
ment may warrant, and under the supervision of the State Board of 
Education. 

9. To guide such a development a Commissioner for Teacher Training 
should be provided for, before long, and as a part of the State Depart- 
ment of Education, as sketched in Chapter I. Such a Commissioner 
would be needed also to oversee the work, should the Smith-Towner 
bilP pass Congress.^ 

10. The future calls for a rearrangement of relationships between 
the State University and the public school system, and particularly 



'See footnote 2, Chapter I, page 13. 

"When the Smith-Towner Bill passes Congress, as it seems probable that it will 
sooner or later, this state would receive approximately $350,000 annually from the 
Federal Government for aid in teacher-training — an amount that would probably cover 
future increases in cost for our teacher-training institutions. 

5-7789 



66' REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

))etween these new Teachers ' Colleges and the University. Whether this 
can be arranged for best by a coordinating board, by consolidation under 
one board, or by some other plan, the Committee leaves to the future to 
decide. 

11. The examination and certification of teachers are primarily state 
functions, and should be transferred from the county authorities to the 
control of the State Board of Education. 

12. The certification laws of this state are in need of a careful revision, 
with a view to creating a graded and a more rational plan. Supervisory 
certificates, and some form of Reading Circle work, are recommended 
to be added. 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 67 

C^L\HThR IV. 

HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 

OUR HIGH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT. 

Tlie first Anierieaii liigli school was estal)lislie(I in Boston, in 1821. 
Tlie development of this new type of free po])ular higher school was for 
a time slow, and was confined entirely to New England, New York, and 
Pennsylvania. By 1850 there were 31 free public high schools in the 
United States, the dates of the establishment of which .seem certain, and 
of these 31 but two were outside of this North Atlantic group of states. 
One had been founded in New Orleans, in 1843, and one in Detroit, 
in 1844. In 1858 the first public high school in California was estab- 
lished in San Francisco, and, excepting two schools in Texas, this was 
the first public high school to be founded west of St. Louis. By 1885, 
when the public high school movement had finally gotten well under way 
in that part of the United States lying east of the Missouri River, there 
were still but twelve public high schools in California. The year before, 
LS84, the State University began the voluntary inspection and accredit- 
ing of the few high schools of the state, partly with a view to the im- 
provement of their work, and partly to stimulate their further develop- 
ment. A small population, and the requirement that high schools must 
be district affairs and supported wholly locally, for long confined them 
to the few cities able to maintain them. 

The real beginning of high school development in this state dates 
from the passage of the Union High School law, in 1891, and the stimu- 
lating influence of the opening of Stanford University this same year. 
By 1890 but 24 district high schools had been developed. The new law 
of 1891 permitted, for the first time, of the union of school districts to 
form union high schools, thus providing for their organization in other 
than city territory. In four years following the enactment of the law 
of 1891 the number of high schools increased from 24 to 98, and in twelve 
years to 143. The limit in the number of possible schools under this 
law having been about reached by 1900, and the burden for mainte- 
nance on many union districts being very heavy, an amendment to the 
state constitution w^as proposed, in 1902, which would permit of the in- 
corporation of the high school into the state school system, and the levy- 
ing of a state high school tax, separate and distinct from the tax for 
elementary schools. This was approved by the people by a very decided 
majority, and the first state support for the high schools was made by the 
Legislature of 1903. At first a property tax of 1^ cents on the $100 was 
levied, but two years later (1905) this was changed, to bring it into con- 



6S 



REPORT OF LEGiSLATiVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



MODOC • 



LOCATION OP 

THE HIGH SCHOOLB 

OP 

C^irOBHlA 




Pig. 13. High School Development in California bt 1920. 

There i.s now at least one high school in every county, except Mono and 
Alpine. Duplicate high schools in cities not indicated on the map. Total 
number of schools in 1919-20 was 318. 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 69 

formity with the state aid for elementary schools, to a state grant equal 
to $15 for each pupil in average daily attendance in the high schools of 
the state the preceding year. At this sum it remained until the adoption 
of Constitutional Amendment No. 16. at the last general election, which 
fixes the state aid for the high schools in the future at $30 per pupil in 
average daily attendance. The county high school tax law of 1916, 
requiring a county high school tax of $60 per pupil, in addition to state 
aid, laid firmly the financial foundations of our secondary school system. 
Under the stimulus of the state aid received the number of high 
schools developed from 143 in 1903 to 318 in 1919-20, employing 5,794 
teachers, and enrolling 162,650 pupils. Only two counties, Alpine and 
Mono, are now without a high school, and the state may now be said to 
be fairly well supplied wdth secondary school advantages. The map on 
page 68 shows the location of the high schools of California in 1919-20, 
and the chart on page 70 shows the actual and estimated future enroll- 
ment in the high schools of this state. 

SPECIAL FEATURES OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT. 

Unlike most other states, California has, since 1879, carefully seg- 
regated the funds to be used in maintaining elementary schools from 
those needed to maintain high schools. Not only are the state and 
county tax levies different, but the funds must be kept separate and 
paid out on separate warrants by the high school districts. Begun by 
the Constitution of 1879 from motives unfriendly to high school develop- 
ment, this has worked out to the distinct advantage of both high and 
elementary schools. Instead of, as in most eastern states, putting all 
funds together and then robbing the elementary schools to maintain a 
fine high school, each part of the system in this state has had its own 
funds. While we have been forced to raise larger sums for public school 
purposes, the elementary school funds have not been depleted, and 
excellent elementary schools have in consequence been provided and 
maintained. Still more, the large per capita wealth of California has 
made it easy for this state to maintain good schools of both types. 

Unlike nearly all other states, too, California early began to require 
special education and professional preparation of the teachers for its 
high schools. Accompanying the Union High School law of 1891 was 
another law creating the high school certificate, to be required thereafter 
of those desiring to teach in the high schools of this state. At first to be 
had only on examination before County Boards of Education, in 1903 
graduation from the State University or from Stanford University was 
permitted, if the course had included certain professional studies, to be 



70 



REPORT OP LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



500.000 



450,000 



400.000 



350.000 



Soaooo 



250,000 



200,000 



! 50, 000 



100,000 



50,000 



.L._ ! 



I I I 



txn- 




^M 



.v -H- 



11 L,._ 



Fl(!. 14. ACTLTAT. AND ESTIMATED GROWTH IN HIGH SCHOOL ENROLLMENT. 

Actual, 1900 to 1920; estimated, 1920 to 1935. 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 71 

substituted for the written examination, and in 1907 the county written 
examination was entirely abolished. In 1905 the State Board of Edu- 
cation added a year of graduate study to the previous requirements, 
and increased the amount of professional study required. The Uni- 
versity of Southern California, Pomona College, and Mills College in 
this state, as well as a number of the leading universities of the United 
States, have since been accredited for this work. 

It will thus be seen that California, from the first, has kept clearly in 
view the creation of a high grade of secondary school. The finance has 
been guaranteed, and competent teachers for it have been assured by 
demanding new standards of training. To these two features in our 
school legislation is due much of the present high quality of our Cali- 
fornia high schools and the pride our citizens take in them. Still more, 
only such high grade of secondary school would have satisfied the type 
of educated citizenship found throughout this state. 

SECONDARY SCHOOL NEEDS FOR THE FUTURE. 

As was stated above, the legislation up to the present has resulted in 
fairly well supplying this state with high schools of the regular four- 
year general type, and they stand today on a good financial and pro- 
fessional footing. The needs of our high school for the future, it has 
seemed to this Committee, accordingly lie more along the line of the 
extension of the high school to meet new needs. 

In our cities there is much need for the development of additional 
vocational schools and high schools of commerce, to meet the new voca- 
tional and commercial demands of this state. The new attitude taken 
toward such schools by the laboring classes makes their development 
especially desirable now. The new part-time education law has created 
a demand for much new instruction suited to the needs of a new class 
of pupils now for the first time brought into the high schools by the 
extension of the compulsory attendance age limits from sixteen to 
eighteen. Similarly the Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education 
Act (1917) has made possible the development of a new type of higher 
grade vocational and commercial education, to meet the new needs of the 
future of our country in trade and commerce. If this state is to attain 
to the prominence in industry and in domestic and foreign commerce 
which we hope for it, our cities must give larger attention than is now 
done to the development of vocational and commercial higli schools, com- 
parable with those found in the most progressive trade cities of Europe. 

In the agricultural sections of this state there is also need for a more 
general development of agricultural courses in our high schools, and 
likewise for the establishment of quite a number of the so-called Countv 



72 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

Agricultural High Schools, which have rendered such service in provid- 
ing a high type of agricultural and home-life education for boys and 
girls in such states as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, Georgia, and 
elsewhere. These are well-equipped high schools, supplied with ade- 
quate buildings and land, in which the courses of instruction give special 
emphasis to agriculture, horticulture, dairying, stock raising, poultry 
raising, marketing, home economics and other needs of a high-grade 
agricultural life. A county is about the smallest unit for their forma- 
tion and maintenance, and the general establishment of the county unit 
would make their foundation a simple matter. 

In all sections of this state, too, once the county-unit form of edu- 
cational organization has been applied, and consolidated elementary 
schools have been developed, there should be an extension of the inter- 
mediate or Junior High School idea by the addition of ninth-grade and 
probably tenth-grade instruction to many of these consolidated schools. 
Still more, there is need, in a number of our cities and possibly else- 
where, for the upward extension of the secondarj^ school to include the 
thirteenth and fourteenth years, and to form what are commonly 
known as Junior Colleges. It was to this last aspect of the problem of 
secondary school needs that the Committee devoted much of its investi- 
gation, and upon which it largely concentrated two of its hearings. It 
seemed to the Committee that this is the most acute and important 
aspect of the secondary school problem in California today. 

JUNIOR COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT IN CALIFORNIA. 

The Legislature, in 1907, first permitted any four-year high school to 
add two more years and develop Junior College work. At first little was 
done in the matter. In 1911 the State University rearranged its col- 
legiate instruction into a Lower Division, consisting of the Freshmen 
and Sophomore years, and an Upper Division, consisting of the Junior 
and Senior years, and in doing so closely integrated the work of the 
Lower Division with that of the high school below. The need for dupli- 
cating courses in college which had been taken in the high school was 
eliminated, while certain subjects not taken in the high school were 
required in the Lower Division work. The w^hole led to the virtual 
establishment of a unified six-year high school and college course of 
study, leading at its completion to a so-called Junior Certificate. The 
University of Chicago had earlier perfected a similar plan, and upon 
the completion of the course conferred a diploma and the degree of 
Associate in Arts. In 1920 Stanford ITniversity made a rearrangement 
and division of its instruction somewhat similar to that worked out at 
the State University. 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 73 

In 1911 the first six-year high school in this state was established at 
Fresno; Santa Barbara and Los Angeles began such schools in 1912; 
Fullerton and Bakersfield in 1913 ; and Long Beach in 1914. Still others 
were established before 1918, when 14 such institutions reported an en- 
rollment of 518 boys and 1043 girls. In 1916. the Legislature revised 
the earlier law, and provided (section 1750& of the Political Code) for 
the creation of such Junior Colleges in any high school district having an 
assessed valuation of $3,000,000. The courses of study were to satisfy 
the requirements for the Junior Certificate at the State University, all 
such courses were required to be approved by the State Board of Edu- 
cation, and some state and county aid was granted by including all 
pupils attending such courses under both the $15 state and the regular 
county average daily attendance grants made to regular high schools. 
The War checked this Junior College development, and a few schools 
which had been begun discontinued part of their work, but conditions 
since the close of the War have given new emphasis to the need for 
their further development. The same need has been felt in states other 
than California, and in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Massachu- 
setts, and elsewhere the Junior College question is now under more or 
le^s active ennsideration. 

THE NEW INTEREST IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 

Siuce the close of the World War the demand for higher education 
has exceeded anythins: this country has ever before known, and there 
is good reason to think that this new demand will remain permanently. 
The War called new attention, in all lands, to the need for more educa- 
tion, and particularly to the need for higher and technical training. 
The educational work of the Army gave special emphasis to this with 
American, French, and British troops. All over the world new 
expenditures for education have recently been undertaken, and all over 
the world the secondary schools and universities have experienced a 
marked increase over pre-war levels in the number of students enrolled. 
In England, for example, despite very heavy war burdens, the expendi- 
tures for education during the past two j^ears have more than doubled, 
while since 1914 they have practically trebled.^ In France, Canada, 
South Africa, Australia, and elsewhere the same new interest in and 
increased expenditures for education have been noted. The United 
States Commissioner of Education reports that last year (1919-20) 
there were 1.735,619 young people in the 13.951 public high schools in 
the United States, as against 1,373,661 in 1913-14, while statistics gath- 



'Tntal expense.s in lOOi-lO were £13,100,000, in round numbers: in 1913-14 they were 
approximatelv £l.'5,OOO.ono : and in 1918-19 they were £19,334,705. The budget as 
approved for 1920-21 calls for £45,755,567. 



74 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATfON. 



ered for college enrollment to the end of October (1920) show prac- 
tically every college and state university in the United States to have 
a markedly increased enrollment over the year's total enrollment (sum- 
mer session not included) for five years ago. A few comparisons will 
illustrate. 

TABLE II. 
Increase in College Enrollment. 



Total 


Enrollment 


Enrollment 


to Oct. 


iyi5 


1920 


6,434 


11,154 


5,439 


8,270 


2, 680 


3,620 


5,833 


6,609 


4,484 


7,438 


3,&32 


4,388 


4,599 


7,156 


2,574 


3786 


3,249 


5,200 


5,128 


7,004 


5,226 


5,481 


12,249 


16,000 


3,793 


5,728 


2,054 


2,489 



University of California-.. 

University of Illinois 

University of Iowa 

University of Micliigan -.. 
University of Minnesota _ 
University of Nebraska _- 

University of Ohio 

University of Texas 

University of Washington 
University of Wisconsin.- 

Harvard University 

Columbia University 

University of Chicago 

Stanford University 



In California, which since 1891 has shown a marked interest in 
high school and collegiate training, the enrollment in both the high 
schools of this state and the State University has increased by leaps 
and bounds. Figure 14, page 70, gave the increase in enrollment and 
graduations for the high schools of this state, and the chart opposite 
(Fig. 15) gives similar information for the State University. Con- 
tinuing the curves, based on the growth in the number of public high 
school graduates only, and the growth in enrollment at the State Uni- 
versity, counting only the colleges at Berkeley and omitting summer 
school and extension classes, the Berkeley colleges alone would have 
12,500 students by 1925, 16,500 by 1930, and 20.000 by 1935^ Such 
a great number of largely undergraduate students in one place can not 
be properly housed, fed, cared for, supervised, or taught, and such a 



=The University of Minnesota, faced by a similar growtli and congestion, recently 
appointed a Survey Commission to examine into the whole Question of the gi'owtli and 
needs of the University during tlie next quarter century. With an enrollment for 
1918-19 of 5,137, and 296 graduate students, it was calculated tliat the University 
would have to care for the following numbers of students: 



Undergraduates 



1924-25 ' 3,000 

iooql-po 3,500 

1634^35 :::::::::::: ■ 4,000 

1939^40 -— I ^'^^ 

1944-45 I ^'^^ 



8,300 
10,000 
ll,.5O0 
1.3,300 
1.5,000 



460 
550 
640 
740 
830 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COI.I.KGK. 



rD 



25,000 



aa.S'oo 



iz.?oo 



7.5:00 




Fig. If). Actual and Estimated F'uture Growth of the Colleges at Berkeley. 

Colleges located at Berkeley alone counted, and all extension and summer 
term students omitted. Data taken from the President's Rei)ort of the [Tniversity 
of California. Segregation of Lower Division students from Upper Division stu- 
dents before 1912 calculated on basis of present ratios. 



76' REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

number ought not be congregated together in one place. Since Cali- 
fornia has few endowed or church colleges, and all these are limited in 
resources and have now almost as many students as their funds will 
permit them to receive, the main dependence for the future growth in 
higher education in this rapidly growing state must rest upon the State 
University, and upon such branch state colleges as the Legislature may 
create. 

A PROGRAM FOR CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT. 

To concentrate such numbers of students as will in the future seek 
collegiate education in this state largely at one place, the Committee 
felt would be both expensive and decidedly unwise, considered from 
almost every point of view. To develop one or more duplicate State 
Universities would cost still more, because the duplicate library and 
laboratory equipment is very expensive, and often almost impossible. 
After careful consideration of the whole question the Committee felt 
that any v.ise policy for the development of higher educational advan- 
tages in this state calls for a scattering of the students in their earlier 
years, while they are in need of closer supervision for both their studies 
and their morals, and a concentration of the upper and more expensive 
work in one high-grade university. Based on such conclusion, and in 
line with the previous recommendations as to teacher-training, the Com- 
mittee would recommend the following as a policy for the future devel- 
opment of higher education in this state : 

1. The gradual development of the State Normal Schools into four- 
year Teachers' Colleges, with power to confer a degree, as outlined in 
the previous chapter. 

2. The development at first of a Junior College in connection with 
each Normal School, unless there should be good reasons for not dupli- 
cating a previous city Junior College development, covering Lower 
Division work much as at the State University, and parallel with the 
professional courses for the training of teachers. 

3. The gradual extension of the Junior College work of the Normal 
Schools, as well as the professional courses, at first to a three-, and later 
to a four-year basis with degrees, thus developing in this state a number 
of regional state colleges, though with the Upper Division work confined 
to a small number of lines, of a type that can be done well on a limited 
equipment, and of a kind that will be most needed in the training of 
teachers for both the elementary and secondary schools. 

4. The segregation of the Lower Division work at the State University 
into a Junior College, standing somewhat in the rank of a preparatory 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 



77 



department for tlie real university,'' vvliich would properly begin at the 
junior year and continue into the graduate work, and largely as a 
group of professional schools and colleges. 



Our Presen't' ScVioo\ 
S tf slew . 



V 

-t- 






iD 



^^ 






)^ 



Ywflf 
-a.€"— 



WorR. 



LWeral Olrts 
a»ul "TecKnieal 

Courses , 



TO :=^ y- n 



i.S' 






Sckoo} 



K\n3l 



grqgr 



rten 



-as 

-42 
.2,1 

-io-- 

18- 
MT- 
-16- 

<? 

13 



»2 
(I 

via 









I Oft 



8tt. 
6ttt 






3rd 
2i 



1st 



Tlte TVUfe Sftkool ^jitem. 



"UnivcrsiTy ScEooTs 









/) 



f? 



M 



Ci'vicjLtWral, 












Sj'x 
Craie; 



-Tals 



Kwydgrjarten 






cr> Us 



W 



h 



do 
o 

.11 

C5 CM 



^P- 



O 



Fig. 16. Showing Proposed Reorganization of Our School System. 

The present public school system, including one year of Kindergarten, is 13 
years long, and the University covers seven years, including the professional work, 
it is proposed gradually to extend the public school system two years by adding 
to it the thirteenth and fourteenth years of work, taking these from the University. 
Then, by changing the University into a group of professional schools, beginnmg 
at the Junior Year, general college work would end at 20 and professional work 
be completed at 23 or 24, thus getting the student into life work one to two years 
earlier than now. 

5. The concentration of all graduate work, for teachers as well as 
for other professional lines, at the one central State University, there 
to be gathered the most expensive equipment in libraries, laboratories, 
and faculty. 

6. The development in connection with the high schools of a serirr- 
of supplemental Junior Colleges, in addition to those in connection with 



^Thirty years ago the colleges of this country went through a similar upward 
evolution. Then every college and state imiversity maintained a two-year Prepara- 
tory School, covering the present eleventh and twelfth years of the public high schools. 
Today practically all except a few of the church colleges have abandoned their 
preparatory departments, and rely upon the public and private high schools for the 
training of their students. 



7 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

the Teachers' Colleges, at a number of well-located points in this state, 
these also to give Lower Division work, and their students to pass to 
the Teachers' Colleges or to the State University for further collegiate 
or professional work. 

7. The present time, when the people have refused lo approve 
Constitutional Amendment No. 12, which proposed a large tax for the 
State University, and the crowded conditions there, makes this a critical 
time in our higher educational development, and the immediate formu- 
lation of a definite state policy for the future is demanded. By 
developing the Junior Colleges, as is recommended in this Report, a 
large and expensive and largely unsatisfactory development in buildings 
and teaching staff at Berkeley can be avoided, and Lower Division 
education in this state can at the same time be carried to different parts 
of the state and to more young people by the development of a number 
of smaller and less expensive units. This Committee therefore recom- 
mends that the Legislature, at the coming session, decide this question 
of state educational policy, that the lines of future development may 
be determined and educational and financial Avaste be avoided. 

ADVANTAGES OF SUCH A PLAN. 

The many advantages of such a comprehensive plan for the develop- 
ment of professional and higher education in this state will be evident. 
Briefly stated, they are : 

1. It would relieve present and prevent a future congestion of 
immature young people at Berkeley, and would substitute smaller 
classes under closer personal supervision for the mass instruction of 
Lower Division students now given at the State University. 

2. It would give a new spirit to the work of the Normal Schools, by 
introducing new subjects of study, better prepared faculties, and new 
groups of young people, of both sexes, who have new interests. The 
mutual reaction of these different groups would improve the quality 
of both the professional and the collegiate work, and the mingling of 
the different groups would serve to attract manj' to teaching who now 
have no opportunity to become acquainted wdth the work. 

3. By carrying Junior College, and eventually collegiate instruction 
nearer to the homes, it would make possible the extension of a college 
education to a much larger number of our people. 

4. It would permit of the transformation of the State University 
into a real university in all its parts, and of its becoming what a state 
university should become — a group of professional schools beginning 
largely at the Junior year. 

5. It would enable Stanford University, which is a valuable supple- 
ment to the higher educational resources of this state and which must 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 79 

be considered as having a semi-state relationship.' also to reduce its 
first and second years to a preparatory status, and, hi consequence, to 
concentrate its resources more and more on the higher and more expen- 
sive types of education which the state Avill need more and more in the 
years to come. 

6. It would ultimately provide the children of this state with an 
economically arranged system of public instruction, and one based on 
better. pedagogical grounds than tihe one we now have, as is shown in 
the chart given on page 77. Under such a plan our young people 
would practically complete their general collegiate education at twenty, 
instead of at twenty-two, as at present, and- be able to enter business 
life or professional study two years earlier than now, a saving both to 
themselves and to the state of no small importance. 

7. While any extension of educational advantages will naturally cost 
additional sums, it is more than probable that the gradual development 
of such a state-wide plan for higher education, with less expensive 
units, would result in lower per capita costs, while it is certain that it 
would result in very much better instruction, and a much more 
economical utilization of equipment and the services of more capable 
professors. 

CONTROL OF SUCH DEVELOPMENT. 

The control of the expansion of the Normal Schools into Teachers' 
and Regional Colleges should be placed with the State Board of Educa- 
tion, as \vas outlined and stated in the preceding chapter. In cities in 
which State Normal Schools are located the school should take over the 
Junior College work from the high school, unless the State Board of 
Education grants permission, for good cause shown, to the city school 
department to continue the work or to maintain a parallel development. 
The development of Junior Colleges elsewhere in this state, either by 
the expansion of existing high schools or the foundation of union- 
district or county junior-college-districts, should be under the provi- 
sions of general state law. To this end the Committee recommends 
that the existing law on the subject (Section 1750& of the Political 
Code) be revised and expanded, and made to include, in addition to 
what is already required by this law, the following new provisions : 

1. To prevent the formation of Junior Colleges without proper 
financial backing, and where not needed, the assessed valuation of the 
high school district required ($3,000,000) should be raised to from 
three to four times that amount, and a population limit also added. In 
the absence of carefully gathered figures, an assessed valuation of not 



^Stanford University's creation by .state law and its endowment were safeguarded by 
the people of this state through an amendment to the State Constitution ; the trustees 
are required to make an annual report to the Governor of the state ; and the institution 
renders valuable service to the state in the training of teachers and professional 
leaders and without cost to the state. 



80 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

less than $10,000,000 and a total population in the district of not less 
than 15,000 people, might well be established as a tentative minimum 
for new Junior Colleges. 

2. Junior College districts should be organized in the same manner 
as are county high schools now, as provided for in section 1738 of the 
Political Code, and might be formed by a city school district, a coimty 
school district, or a union of high school districts. 

3. The governing board for the Junior College should be the high 
school board in cities, the county board of education for county-unit 
Junior Colleges, and for union district Junior Colleges should be formed 
on some representative basis from existing high school boards. For 
Junior Colleges in connection with a Normal School or a Teachers' 
College, or the State University, the board of trustees or regents for 
such institution would form the board of control. 

4. All courses of instruction in the Junior Colleges, as now, should be 
subject to general approval bj^ the State Board of Education; the 
courses should have the same counting value as Lower Division work 
at the State University; and day and evening, and cultural and voca- 
tional courses, should be permissible. 

5. The inspection and accrediting of Junior College courses and work, 
as well as all high school courses and work, should be by representatives 
of the State Department of Education, and as a proper function of the 
state. To this end the State Board of Education should be directed to 
take over, from the State University, the high school inspecting staff 
and records, and give to this staff such additional service as may be 
needed to inspect and approve the Junior Colleges as they develop. 
For a time the State University might be designated to act as agent for 
the State Board of Education. The State University might retain a 
visiting relation to the high schools and Junior Colleges, if it saw fit 
to do so, but their official inspection, accrediting of work done, and 
approval of money grants is a proper state function, and should be 
exercised by representatives of the State Board of Education. 

6. The degrees to be granted, when the Teachers Colleges have been 
developed, should be under the authorization of one central board. 
As was pointed out in the preceding chapter, this should be either the 
University of California, meaning thereby something larger than the 
institution at Berkeley, or the State Board of Education acting as a 
board of trustees for the Teachers' Colleges of California. When the 
University of California becomes an integral part of the public school 
system of the state, and a corporation representing the higher educa- 
tional interests of the state, it would be proper that it should control 
the conferring of degrees in all its collegiate branches. AVhen this 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGK. 81 

stage of development has been reached, it may be that the separate 
boards of trustees for the Normal Schools eonld largely or entirely pass 
out of existence. Until such a transformation has been effected, though, 
it will be best that control remain with the State Board of Education. 

STATE AID FOR AND SUPPORT OF JUNIOR COLLEGE WORK. 

Such a development as has been sketched, covering a period of perhaps 
the coming decade, shoidd give to California one of the best and most 
satisfactory systems of secondary and higher education to be found in 
the United States, and one that would carry collegiate education to the 
young people of this state in a manner and to a degree that could not 
otherwise be done. The Committee feels that California has now arrived 
at a stage in its educational development that warrants such a further 
extension of educational advantages, and that the rapid growth of and 
the resulting congested condition at the State University makes such a 
development very desirable. It accordingly recommends that a begin- 
ning of such development be authorized now by making provision for 
Junior College courses in the State Normal Schools, and by a revision 
of the Junior College law to include the features and conditions enumer- 
ated above. 

The Committee also feels that the time has arrived, in this state, when 
the state should more fully assume, as it did earlier in the case of the 
high school development, the state's proper share in the cost of main- 
taining the Junior Colleges. Under Amendment No. 16 these Junior Col- 
leges would now be entitled to $30 of state aid for each student in 
average daily attendance the preceding j^ear. As the cost for maintain- 
ing instruction in the Junior Colleges will probably approximate the 
cost of Lower Division work at the State University, and as the state 
will not need to spend money for instruction there for all students who 
would have gone there and instead attend a Junior College elsewhere, 
it would- seem fair that the state should assume a materially larger 
share of the cost of Junior College instruction. 

The Committee therefore recommends that this be assumed, and, as 
a tentative basis, until experience demonstrates that other sums are 
more desirable, recommends that the Legislature create a separate Junior 
College Fund; that the state grant for Junior College students be 
increased to $100 per pupil in average daily attendance the preceding 
year ; and that this grant be contingent upon the approval of the instruc- 
tion as now, and the levying and expending locally of not less than 
$150 additional per pupil in average daily attendance.^ Pupils coming 

=At the University of Washington, which has one of the best cost-record systems of 
any American university, the cost of Freshman and Sophomore instruction has been 
found to be almost even $250 per student per year. 

&— 7769 



82 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCxVTION. 

from high school districts not iiiaiiitainiug a Junior College, and attend- 
ing a Junior College maintained by a Junior-College district, a State 
Normal School or Teachers' College, or the State University, shall be 
admitted to the instruction only upon the district from which they 
come agreeing to pay to the Junior College receiving them $150 per 
pupil per year. This last provision is necessary to insure that com- 
munities in which state schools are located, or which do not maintain a 
Junior College, shall assume their proper share of the cost for Junior 
College instruction. 

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In summary form, the findings and recommendations of the Com- 
mittee are as follows : — 

1. California ranks with the New England states in the early interest 
in secondary schools, though this early interest was for a time checked 
by the reactionary attitude taken toward higher schools by the Consti- 
tution of 1879. Since 1891 the interest has grown steadily and rapidly, 
and today California is fairly well supplied with a high grade of second- 
ary schools and secondary school teachers. 

2. Distinguishing features of the California high school system have 
been separate financing, a separate teacher's certificate required, and 
adequate finance. To these features are due much of the present excel- 
lence of the California high school system. 

3. The needs of secondary education in this state consequently lie 
in the extension of the high school, both along vocational lines and up- 
ward to form Junior Colleges. 

4. The new interest in higher education is world wide, and promises 
to be permanent. In consequence the State University, in common with 
colleges and universities everywhere, is crowded, and bids fair to be- 
come more so with time. A University attendance at Berkeley alone 
of 16,500 by 1930 seems proable, and of 20,000 by 1935. The c-ongrega- 
tion of this number in one city institution is neither wise, economical, 
or desirable. 

5. A program for future California development, in keeping with 
needs in both teacher-training and collegiate expansion, involves the 
addition of Junior College work to the State Normal Schools, and in 
time the development of these into a series of regional state colleges 
combining teachers' college work and collegiate instruction. 

6. In addition. Junior Colleges should be permitted to be developed 
elsewhere, and to that end a revision of the Junior College law is recom- 
mended. 



HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE. 83 

7. To finance properly such a development it is recommended that 
a State Junior College Fund be created, and increased state aid to com- 
munities maintaining Junior Colleges be granted. To the same end, all 
school districts not maintaining Junior Colleges and sending pupils to 
them should be required to contribute the cost of their education in 
addition to the state contribution. 

8. The advantages of sneh a plan are numerous and evident. It 
would transform the Normal Schools into a good grade of professional 
and collegiate institutions and restore them once more to favor, carry 
collegiate education closer to the peo])le of the state, relieve a very 
undesirable congestion at Berkeley, and enable the State ITniversity to 
concentrate its work on Upper Division and graduate work of real 
university grade. The plan would in all probability reduce per capita 
costs, save large additional plant outlays at Berkeley, and better utilize 
both equipment and faculty. 

9. During the process of such a development, the State Board of 
Education should be given general control, and the inspection and 
accrediting of both high schools and Junior Colleges should be trans- 
ferred from the State ITniversity to the State Board of Education. After 
the development has been aceomjilished, sonic type of unified control 
of all higher institutions should be worked out and applied, a control 
tliat will insure harmonious cooperation with the public school system 
of the state. 



84 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COAxivUTTEE ON EDUCATION. 



Chapter V. 

A BETTER EQUALIZATION OF FUNDS. 

The Committee had neither the means at its disposal nor the time 
to make a full report on questions of cost. Certain facts, however, were 
brought out at the hearings which seem worthy of mention in a final 
chapter of this Report. 

The prime purpose in educational administration, it must always be 
remembered, is but to plan how to spend the money available in the 
most satisfactory manner. If saving money were the purpose in school 
work, it would be better at once to curtail all educational effort and 
ultimately to abandon education as a public function, leaving the pro- 
vision of educational opportunities to private schools and the churches. 
Such is neither the desire nor the purpose of our American people, and 
they have so expressed themselves and in no undecided manner many 
times since the first agitation for free public schools began. Instead, our 
people look upon a good education at public expense as "a productive 
expenditure which is not only an investment but an insurance," and 
for which they can not afford not to spend the needed money. The 
real questions are, Are we getting the largest possible returns for the 
money we are spending? and, Could we, by following any other plan or 
plans, secure even larger returns for the money we are now spending 
and in the future will spend? There is but one general recipe for better 
schools, and that is to spend more money in a better way. 

The hearings and the subsequent study and discussion seemed to 
indicate that some improvement might be made along two lines, and 
to these the Committee wall confine its statement in this the final 
chapter of its Report. They are : 

1. In the substitution of the county-unit form of educational admin- 
istration for that of the school district. 

2. In the apportionment of the state and county school funds. 

(a) The elementary school fund. 
(h) The high school fund. 

I. POSSIBLE COUNTY-UNIT ECONOMIES. 

The Committee was convinced by its study that the district system 
of school administration is unnecessarily expensive, in addition to 
being one under which progress is both slow and difficult. Still more, 
with the salary increases and larger maintenance costs that will follow 
from the increased state and county aid which Constitutional Amend- 
ment No. 16 will bring, the district system will become more expensive to 
this state in the future than it has ever been before. In Chapter II 



A BETTER EC^UAr.IZATION OF FUNDS. 85 

we indieatid a number of the smaller unnecessary expenses which it 
occasions, and there stated that, on the experience of other states, 
writ'i's on the subject confidently assert that from one-sixth to one-fifth 
of t.'O teachers of a county could be dispensed with under a well 
organized county-unit form of school consolidation, and from one- 
fourth to one-third under consolidation if 3:0 better educational facil- 
ities were provided. Assuming this to be tlk case, it is probable that, 
if our schools were reorganized as county-unit schools and properly 
administered, as mueli as ^1,000,000 a year could be saved in this state 
for better purposes, as well as the time and services of some 10,000 minor 
school officials, who after all are not needed. 

The Committee would not have anyone infer that if this were done 
the expense for education in this state could, in consequence, be reduced 
$1,000,000. Such a change would necessarily have to be gradual, and 
the money saved would be at once called to meet the educational needs 
of a constantly increasing school population. What would be accom« 
plished would be a better use of the money at hand, and the cost, when 
the schools were reorganized under the county-unit plan, would be 
$1,000,000 or so less than it would have been under the district system. 

A number of studies, both in California and elsewhere, bear out this 
belief. Confining our statements to California, we would cite seven 
county reorganization surveys made by graduate students at Stanford 
University, under the direction of Professor Cubberley. These were 
careful studies, upon which each student spent a year of personal 
investigation, and at the close formulated a report in writing. These 
reports were typewritten, bound, and are in the Stanford University 
library. To these the Committee has had access. The first of the 
reports made was considered so good a study of the type of educational 
reorganization needed in our counties that it was accepted for publica- 
tion by the United States Commissioner of Education, and issued as a 
public document.^ The other studies were similar, and covered the 
counties of Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Orange, 
and Riverside. These counties represent quite different educational 
conditions, and are fairly typical of reorganization possibilities in tRis 
state. 

Each graduate student working on the problem visited every school 
in the county, studied the roads and distances and the natural com- 
munity boundaries, calculated the transportation routes needed, 
obtained cost figures at the county court house, and planned, under 
direction, an educational reorganization of the schools of the county 
under a county-unit form of government, with consolidated schools 
where possible. He also provided in the reorganization for a better and 

'Williams, J. Harold. "Reorganizing a County System of Rural Schools." Bulletin 
No. 16, 1916, of the United States Bureau of Education. 52 pages. Washington, 1916. 



86' 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



a more efficient type of school system, with longer terms, uniform 
teachers' salaries, better supervision, and general high-school advan- 
tages. Even after doing this, and often providing transportation 
routes for small numbers of children, the costs for the much superior 
county-unit school System frequently were less than for the existing 
district system. As these studies were made in 1915 and 1916, repre- 
sent pre-war costs and salary schedules, and were mostly based on horse- 
drawn transportation wagons, the differences in favor of reorganization 
now, with salaries based on Amendment 16 appropriations and auto- 
mobile transportation, would be considera])ly more marked than those 
calculated even a few years ago. For five of the counties the figures 
were worked out with much care, and they show the following results : 

TABLE III. 

Showing Results of County-Reorganization Studies in California. 

(Data for the year 1915-16.) 



County 


Sonoma Matec 


Santa 
Clara 


Santa Cruz 


Orange 


Number school districts 

Number one-room schools 

Consolidation data- 
Possible centers 

Schools not possible to 


147 
115 

32 

. 4 


37 
23 

13 


84 

40 

28 

2 

346 

310 

-36 

$548,570 
475,900 


54 
45 

15 

5 

141 
1.S9 


50 
11 

21 

5+ 5* 


Teachers needed— 

Before consolidation 

After consolidation - - 


280 

211 

—69 

$33,3,759 
299,729 


130 

107 

—23 

$218,099 
199,575 


247 
224 


Change after reorganization. 

Cost for two plans- 
Cost preceding year 

Cost after reorganization- 


—2 —23 

$209,426 i $482,595 
246,302 396,612 


Gain or loss in costf 


—$34,080 —$18,523 


-$72,670 


-}-$36,876** !— $85,951 



*Five schools could not be consolidated, and five 2 to 3 teacher schools were left as they were 
as being satisfactory. 

**The increased cost h!*re was largely due to a 40 per cent increase in salary this investi- 
gator thought was necessary for all teachers in the county, and to the difficulty of transportation 
in a mountainous county at that time without hard roads. 

f.\ resurvey of these same counties, excepting San Mateo, where the investigator provided 
for automobile transportation and larger school units, made today with the better roads and 
the larger school units now possible, would result in further decreases in number of consolidating 
centers, larger schools, fever teachers, and larger differences in costs. 

II. APPORTIONING THE ELEMENTAY SCHOOL FUND. 

Under existing laws both the state school fund and tax and the 
county school tax are apportioned on the combined basis of the num- 
ber of teachers needed, as determined by an artificial method, and the 
number of pupils in average daily attendance during the preceding 
school year. Instead of determining the number of teachers needed 
by the number actually employed, as is done in practically all other 
states using a teacher basis for the apportionment of funds, the number 
of teachers supposed to be needed in California is determined, for 



A BETTER EQUALIZATION OF FUNDS. 87 

each county, by the county superintendent of schools by allowing each 
school district one teacher for every 35 pupils in average daily attend- 
ance the preceding year, or fraction of 35 not less than 10. This num- 
ber is reported to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and forms 
the basis for the teacher apportionments made by the state to the 
counties, and by the counties to the districts. The state grant, in the 
past, when the total state aid set aside by law recjuired to equal $17.50 
])er pupil in average daily attendance in the vState, was at the rate of 
$350 per teacher so determined, and the county grant was at the 
rate of $800 per teacher on the same basis. Constitutional Amendment 
No. 16 has raised the state grant froni $17.50 to $30 per pupil, and the 
minimum county tax has similarly been increased to an amount not 
less than that received from the state. 

The effect of such a basis of apportionment, under the old law, as 
it relates to the teacher quota part, is shown in Table IV on page 
eighty-eight. From this it will be seen that the total number of teachers 
so calculated for the state was 13,401, and the number actually employed 
was 15,319. This gives a ratio of employment to the calculated num- 
ber of 114.3 per cent ; that is, for every 100 teachers calculated as needed 
there were employed, averaged over the state, 114.3. The table shows, 
for each county, the number calculated as needed for the school year 
1919-20, the number that should have been employed on the state 
ratio, the number actually emplo^^'ed this same year, and the gain or 
loss. An inspection of the table shows that, when we balance the city 
counties, with their many special teachers, against the more rural count- 
ties Avith their complete lack of any such special instruction, it is the 
rural counties that lose under this arrangement. It also works distinctly 
against good education in our small schools. Eight grades, every one 
recognizes, are too many for one teacher. The cities easily, due to 
numbers, specialize their instruction so that no teacher handles more 
than one grade, and seldom more than an average daily attendance of 
35 children. Due to the many schools and classes, it is easy in the 
city to shift any surplus to some other room and teacher. The rural 
school, however, must maintain a yearly average daily attendance of 
45 children before it can be allotted funds for a second teacher, though 
the need for a division of the grades between two teachers is great. 
A yearly average daily attendance of 45 children means an enrollment 
of 50 to 55 children — a number entirely too large for one teacher to 
handle. The result is that the crowded rural school is forced to get 
along with one teacher, because the burden for an additional teacher 
would fall entirely on the district. 

The effect of the present teacher apportionment plan is to penalize 
the rm-al coiinties, and to make poorer than necessary the schools that 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



TABLE IV. 

Showing Relation of Teachers Allowed to Teachers Employed. 

(Data for 1919-20.) 



County 



Number of teachers 



On state 
ratio 



Employed 



Employed 



The State 



Alameda 

Alpine 

Amador 

Butte 

Calaveras 

Colusa 

Contra Costa 

Del Norte 

El Dorado 

Fresno 

Glenn 

Humboldt 

Imperial 

Inyo 

Kern 

Kings 

Lake 

Lassen 

Los Angeles 

Madera 

Marin 

Mariposa 

Mendocino 

Merced 

Modoc 

Mono 

Monterey 

Napa 

Nevada 

Orange 

Placer 

Plumas 

Riverside 

Sacramento 

San Benito 

San Bernardino . 

San Diego 

San Francisco ... 

rfan Joaquin 

San Luis Obispo. 

Sau Mateo 

Santa Barbara .. 

Santa Clara 

Santa Cruz 

Shasta 

Sierra 

Siskiyou 

Solano 

Sonoma 

Stanislaus 

Sutter 

Tehama _. -.. 

Trinity -. 

Tulare 

Tuolumne 

Ventura 

Yolo 

Yuba 



13,401 
1, 



114.3% 



195.7 ! 


1,366.6 


3.0 


3.5 


56.2 


64.2 


151.0 


172.6 


54.3 


62.0 


50.4 


57.2 


244.3 


278.9 


19.0 


22.7 


59.9 ! 


68.4 


654.1 


724.6 


69.9 


80.0 


202.0 


230.1 


178.0 


203.5 


36.0 


41.1 


291.0 : 


332.6 


115.3 ! 


131.4 


40.6 


46.6 


53.0 


60.6 


,007.4 


3,438.3 


86.2 


98.5 


106.3 


121.5 


31.1 ; 


35.4 


158.0 : 


180.6 


137.1 


156.8 


49.0 


55.9 


8.0 1 


9.2 


155.3 


177.2 


87.4 


99.8 


66.0 


75.4 


257.7 


294.4 


m.9 


114.0 


33.C 


37.6 


218.8 


250.2 


332.2 


379.5 


51.8 


59.2 


302.1 


345.1 


400.0 


457.2 


.347.0 


l..S'^9.6 


3;^.5 


380.8 


138.0 


157.7 


170.0 


194.3 


160.7 


183.6 


398.1 


4.55.1 


122.8 


140.4 


121.0 


138.3 


14.0 


16.0 


IfM.O 


153.1 


130.3 


148.4 


278.7 


318.4 


220.4 


255.4 


52.0 


59.4 


83.3 


95.2 


25.0 


28.4 


308.6 


352.8 


51.1 


58.5 


133.2 


152.2 


81.1 


92.6 


59.0 


66.3 



15,319 

1,419 
3 

59 

166 

56 

57 

280 

21 

60 

667 

79 

224 

211 

41 

330 

122 

42 

59 

3,641 

92 

119 

31 

162 

149 

54 

9 

154 

89 

68 

324 

98 

38 

255 

434 

50 

359 

479 

1,579 

352 

152 

183 

190 

422 

138 

122 

17 

136 

135 

290 

231 

02 

95 

27 

322 

52 

162 

Ffi 

65 



.5 
5.2 
6.6 



j 6.0 




j .2 






.1 


1.7 




8.4 




57.4 




1.0 




6.1 





.1 


V.5 


2.6 




9.4 




4.6 




1.6 






.196.3 


6.5 





2.5 




4.4 




18.6 




7.8 




1.9 




.2 






23.2 

10.8 

7.4 



16.0 



9.2 






13.9 




21.8 




39.4 


27.8 





7.7 



11.3 1.. 




i 


6.4 


all .. 




2.4 .. 




16.3 .. 




1 


1.0 



17.1 




13.4 





28.4 




24.4 






2.6 


.2 




1.4 




30.8 




6.5 






9.8 



6.6 

1.3 



A BETTER EQUALIZATION" OF FUNDS. 89 

supply education to our country' boys and girls. This condition will be 
further aggravated as a result of the adoption of Amendment 16. 
Were the basis of apportionments changed from such an artificial method 
for calculating teachers needed to records of actual emplojinent, many 
crowded one-teacher schools would at once add a second teacher, and 
small town schools would add some of that special instruction which 
the cities today even."where enjoy, but which is now almost entirely 
absent from our town and rural schools. This would tend to a better 
equalization of educational advantages throughout the state, and the 
Committee recommends that such a change in basis be made. 

"With the larger funds that will be available under the provisions of 
Amendment 16, it has seemed to the Committee that other items than 
teachers and attendance should be included in making both the 
state and county apportionment of funds. It is wise state policy to 
place as many premiums on local effort as can be done. To stimulate 
a community to new educational activity is more important than reduc- 
ing its taxes. To that end, the state, in apportioning funds to the 
counties, and the counties to the districts while we retain the district 
system, should place as many "baits" in the law for local school 
improvement as may be needed. Some of those that might well be 
added, it has seemed to the Committee, in addition to the employment 
of extra teachers for the rural schools which would be covered by the 
change in basis for calculating teacher apportionments, are: The con- 
solidation of schools : the emplo^Tnent of supervising principals for each 
school, with time free for supervision ; the employment of school nurses : 
and a premium on longer school terms. The state fund, under the 
provisions cf Amendment 16, will be almost doubled, and hence the 
apportionments under the present law will be almost doubled. Instead 
of doing this the Committee would suggest amending the law. after some 
such plan as the following, as the basis upon which the state school 
fund should in future be apportioned to the counties : 

$ for every full-time teacher - actually employed in a day or 
evening elementary school or kindergarten, and to include 
special teachers, school nurses, and parental school teachers. 

$ for every such half-time teacher, or full-time teacher em- 
ployed for half the school year. 

$ additional for every teacher employed in the seventh, eighth, 
or ninth grades and teaching under a departmental or inter- 
mediate form of organization. 

$ additional for every supervising principal employed who has 
at least half his time free for school supervision, and for 
every city or county special-subject supervisor. 

The amounts to be apportioned per teacher are left blank, subject to determination 
later on. after careful calculations have been made. 



90 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

The remainder of the fund to be apportioned on the basis of the 
average daily attendance of pupils. 

After the money has reached the counties, and while retaining the 
district system of school administration, the above grants to be doubled 
in making the county apportionment to the districts. 

After the county-unit has been put into force, both state and county 
funds to be divided between any separate city school districts in the 
county, and the county school district, on the above bases. 

In addition, in apportioning the county fund, the following additional 
items to be added : 

$ for every full-time attendance officer employed. 

$ for every school physician employed. 

$ for every regular transportation route maintained' to carry 
pupils from an abandoned district school to a consolidated or 
union school, when the contracts for such are as provided for 
by general regulation of the State Board of Education, ancl 
have been approved by the county superintendent of schools. 

$1.50 per day per teacher for all time taught each j^ear beyond 160 
days. 

The State Board of Education to lie given power to define, by general 
rule, the conditions under which the above grants are to be made. 

Some such basis as the above, the Committee feels, would not only 
be more equitable than the present apportionment law, but would do 
much to stimulate our counties and school districts, outside of the cities, 
to desirable new activity that would be of much value to education in 
this state. The Committee accordingly recommends that such a change 
be made in the existing state and county apportionment laws. 

In keeping with the above provision, relating to length of school term, 
the Committee further recommends that section 1859 of the Political 
Code be amended to make the minimum term of school in this state 
eight, instead of six months.* 

III. APPORTIONMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL FUNDS. 

When we pass from the apportionment of funds for elementary 
schools to the apportionment of funds for high schools we find a more 
satisfactory condition, though the California plan seems to the Com- 
mittee to have one defect which ought to be remedied. Under existing 
laws the state high school fund is divided into two portions, one of one- 
third, and one of two-thirds. The one-third part is apportioned equally 
to all the high schools of the state, regardless of size, and at present 



^This item would of cour.se disappear after the institution of tlie county unit, as 
all county school funds would be in one budget. 

^Tliis would involve but little addition, even with the district system, as nearly all 
schools now run 7^ to 8 months. Under the county-unit plan a uniform term of 
8 to 9 months ought to become general 



A BKTTKR EQITAIJZATION Of FUNDS. 91 

amounts to about $1,100 a year per school.' The two-thirds part is 
apportioned to the higli schools of the state on the basis of the average 
daily attendance in each the preceding year, and amounts to approxi- 
mately $10 per pui)il. Tlieso amounts i^o, thi'ou^li tlie county treasurer, 
to the individual high schools for which they were allotted. Under the 
provisions of Constitutional Amendment 16, increasing the state aid to 
be so apportioned from $15 to $30 per pupil in average daily attendance, 
these grants under existing law will he d(»ul)l('d in tlie future. A county 
high school tax must also be levied to supplement the sums received 
from the state, the minimum levy of which is $00 per pupil in average 
daily attendance. The basis for the apportionment of this county tax is 
somewhat different, being $250 per teacher employed, up to a maximum 
of four teachers, and the balance on average daily attendance alone. 
This practically apportions all the county high school fund to the high 
schools on the basis of their average daily attendance the preceding 
year. 

While the number of pu})ils in a high school is perhaps a somewhat 
more important factor in maintenance costs than in elementary educa- 
tion, the Committee, nevertheless, feels that it is given far too much 
importance in the California apportionment plan. It places entirely 
too much of a premium on pupil attendance, and neglects the more 
important factors of unit costs for maintenance, teachers employed, 
and expense of different courses provided. After the establishment of 
a high school, which in itself represents a continuing administrative 
unit of cOvSt, the real unit of further cost is not so much the addition 
of more pupils as the addition of more teachers. The present apportion- 
ment plan offers no incentive whatever to communities maintaining high 
schools to put in additional teachers or to broaden the courses of 
instruction in their high schools to meet the needs of different classes 
of pupils and the changing needs of modern life. Rather it places a 
premium on conservatism and inaction. The school with a few 
teachers receives too much ; the school with an adequate teaching staff 
and a broad curriculum too little. This may be seen from the follow- 
ing table, which has been calculated on the basis of the doubled appor- 
tionment that will follow for the future, and on perhaps a conservative 
estimate as to maintenance costs. The last column, showing what per-, 
centage 'of the estimated cost the new state apportionment on the old 

•"'This sum has been slowly increasing' since it was fii-st pro\ided for. In 1911-12 
it amounted to .$794.78; by 1916-17 it had increased to $1,022.88; and for 1919-20 it 
was $1,108. .38. After applying tiie doubled sum provided for by Amendment 16 it would 
be about $2,22.^1, and with the county grant for 4 teachers per .school would amount 
to about $3,22.5. Under the revised plan proposed it would always be $2,000, with a 
new teacher grant added which would vary with the number of teachers employed. 



92 



REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 



basis will provide, shows the penalty it would place on supplying an 
adequate teaching staff for any size of school. 

The cheapest thing for a community to do, Table V shows, is to pro- 
vide as meager a four-year course of instruction as possible. Up to an 
average daily attendance of 50 or 60 pupils, the requirements of the 
state will be met by maintaining book-stud}^ instruction, with two or 
three overworked teachers employed. The languages, history, English, 

TABLE V. 

APPORTIONMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL FUN DS— PRESENT PLAN. 

Showing the Value of the State Aid, as It Will Be If the Present High School 

Apportiorment Law Remains Unchanged. Value of State Grants for 

Different Sizes of High Schools. 





School 


Average 

daily 

attendance 


Number of 
teachers 
employed 


Estimated 

cost for 
maintenance 


state aid received 


Per 




School 

grant 

at $2,200 


Av. daily 

attendance 

grant 

at $20 


Total 
state 
grant 


cent 
of cost 
paid 




A 
B 

C 

D 
E 

r 

G 


25 


2 
3 
4 

2 
3 
4 
5 

3 
4 
5 
6 

4 
5 
6 

7 

8 
10 
12 
14 

20 
22 
25 

40 
50 


$7,500 

9,000 

10,500 

8,000 
9,500 

11, ceo 

12,500 

101,000 
12,.500 
10,000 
18,000 

13,000 
16,500 
20,000 
23,000 

25,000 
29,000 
32',000 
35,000 

55,000 
59,000 
65,0CO 

110.000 
130,000 


$2,200 


$500 


$2,700 


36 
30 












26 




50 


2', 200 


1,000 


3,200 


40 
34 












29 






1 


25 




75 


2,200 


1,500 


3,700 


37 
30 












2.^ 












20 




ICO 


2.20O 


2,000 


4,200 


32 
26 










21 










18 




250 


2,2O0i 


5,000 


7,200 


29 
25 












22 












20 




* 500' 


2:,20O 


10,000 


12,200 


22 
20 












19 




1,000 


2,200 


20,000 


22,200 


20 
16 















mathematics, and a little science will answer, and be at the same time 
relatively cheap. A room, a stove, some desks, a few books, and a 
teacher will meet the requirements for instruction. The case of schools 
B, C, D or E, in the above table, when employing the lowest number 
of teachers, will illustrate such a condition. The state here pays the 
maximum percentage for support, and the school gives in return the 
minimum quality of education. Still more, the state offers no incentive 
to such a community ever to remedy such a situation. 



A BETTER EQUALIZATION OF FUNDS. 



93 



After experimenting with a number of different calculations, and 
trying to derive fractional quotas based on an estimate of the present 
nuinl)cr of schools, teachers, pupils, and funds, the Committee finally 
worked out a plan of unit grants, similar to that recommended for 
elementary schools, which gave the best results, when reduced to a table, 
of any tliat were worked out. Table VI, showing the working of the 
revised plan for the same group of high schools, gives the result, and a 
comparison of the percentage of total cost paid by the state grants, 

TABLE VL 

APPORTIONMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL FUN DS— REVISED PLAN. 

Showing the Value of the State Aid, As It Would Be If the Apportionment Law 

Were Revised As Is Suggested In This Chapter. Value of State Grant 

for Different Sizes of High Schools. 



Avfirage Number of 

daily teachers 

ittendancei employed 



25 



50 



75 



100 



250 



50O 



l.OOO 



Estimated 
cost for 
maintenance 



$7,500 

9,000 

10',50O 

8,000 

9,500 

11,000 

12,500 

laooo 

12,500 
16,0CO 
18,000 

13,000 
16,500 
20.C03' 
2'3,CC0 

25,000 
29,000 
32',000 
35,000 

55,000 
50,000 
65,000 

110, COO 

130,000 



state aid received 



School 

grant 

at $1,000 



Teacher 
grants 
at $30n 
to $100 



$1,000 



1,000 



1,000- 



1,0C0 



1,COO 



1,OCO 



1,000 



$600 

900 

1,200 

60O 

<5C0 

1,200 

1,500 

900 
1,200 
1,SC0 
1,700 

1,200 

1,500 
1,700 
1,900 

2,1C0 

2, .5001 
2,700 
2,900 

3,500 
3,700 
4,000 

5,500 

6,500 



Av. daily 

attendance 

grant 

at $13 



$325 



650 



£75 



1,300 



a2'50 



6,500 



13,000 



Total 
state 
grant 



$1,926 
2,225 
2,525 

2,250 
2,550 
2,850 
3,150 

2,875 
3,175 
3,475 
3,675 

3,500 

3,800 
4,000 
4,200 

6,.350 
6,7.50 
6,950 
7,150 

11,000 
11,200 
11,500 

19,500 

21,500 



Per 

cent 

of cost 

paid 



26 
24 
21 

28 
27 
26 
25 

29 
25 
22 
20 

27 
23 
20 
18 

27 
24 
22 
20 

20 
19 
18 

18 
16 



under the two plans (comparing the last column of each), for any 
school and teaching staff on the list, will show how much more ecjuitable 
the new plan would be than to continue on the old basis. The new plan, 
as worked out, is based on the following items and amounts : 

1. A uniform school cpota to all schools, regardless of size, of 
$1,000 a year. 



94 REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION. 

2. A teacher grant, to be given on records of actual full-time 

employment, and one-half grants for one-half-time teachers 
or teachers emploj'ed for one-half the year, as follows : 

(a) For the first five teachers employed, $300 each per year. 

(b) For the second five teachers employed, $200 each per 
year. 

(c) For all additional teachers employed up to .40, or a total 
of 50 teachers per school, $100 each per year. No 
teacher quota for more than 50 teachers in any school. 

3. All remaining money, after setting aside the above school and 

teacher quotas, to be apportioned to the different high schools 
on the basis of their average daily attendance the preceding 
year. This amount had to be estimated, and on the basis of 
probable funds was calculated would be about $13.00 per pupil 
per year. 

4. All state grants to be duplicated in making the county appor- 

tionments before making any distribution on average daily 
attendance. 

Such an apportionment plan the Committee believes would be a 
decided improvement over the one now in use, because it places a pre- 
mium on the two most desirable factors in good school work — teachei's 
and attendance, recognizes unit administration costs, and is far more 
equitable than the present plan. If a still better plan can be worked 
out, well and good, but if not, the Committee recommends that the 
Legislature revise the present apportionment plan to make it eml)0(ly 
the above principles and conditions. The Committee also can see no 
reason why the plan in use for apportioning the county high school 
tax should not embody the same principles, and accordingly recommends 
that it be also revised to require a duplication of the state school and 
teacher quota grants before apportioning any of the funds on average 
daily attendance. As the county high school tax must not be less than 
$60 per pupil in average daily attendance in the high schools of the 
county the preceding year, instead of $30 as with the state funds, this 
would still leave a liberal fund remaining for apportionment on the 
average daily attendance basis. 

Assuming that both state and county apportionments are made on 
the plan here submitted, each school would receive from the state and 
county funds combined a unit grant as a school of $2,000 ; a grant of 
$600 per teacher for the first five, $400 per teacher for the next five, 
and $200 per teacher for all additional teachers up to a total of 50; 
with a further grant for each pupil in average daily attendance which 
would vary with the productiveness of the county high school tax, but 
whicli would probal)ly range between $80 and $40 per pupil. 



A BETTKR EQUALIZATION OF FUNDS. 95 

IV. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In summary form the findings and recommendations of the Committee 
are as follows: 

1. The prime purpose in educational administration i.s to spend the 
money at hand in the most intelligent manner possible. 

2. Perhaps a million dollars a year could be saved by a substitution of 
county-unit oroanization for the district system, this sum to be applied 
in providing more and better schools. 

3. The plans now in use for apportioning both state and county funds, 
and both elementary and high school funds, are in need of revision to 
provide a more equitable distribution of the money and to stimulate 
conservative communities to new educational activity. 

4. The adoption of Amendment 16, greatly increasing the state aid 
for education, practically necessitates a revision of both the elementary 
and high school apportionment laws. 

5. Plans for such revisions are given, and it is recommended that the 
present Legislature so revise both the elementary school and the high 
school apportionment laws. 



96 report op legislative committee on education. 

Appendix. 
SUMMARY OF NEEDED LEGISLATION. 

To put the reeommeudations of the preceding pa<,'es of this Report 
into effect the following legislation will be needed : 

I. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 

1. State Superintendent of Public IiLstruction ; abolition of the ofli'' 
A rewording of article IX, section 2 of the state Constitution, as oui 
lined on page 24. 

2. County Superintendent of Schools; change from election to 
appointment by a county board of education. A rewording of article 
IX. section 3, of tlu' State Constitution, as outlined on page 51. 

II. NEW LAWS. OR REVISION OF EXISTING LAWS. 

1. A County-riiit L;i\v, ;is dfscrilxMl on pages 44-50. 

2. A law for the gradual expansion of the Normal Schools of the 
state into Teachers' Colleges, under the control of the State Board of 
Education, as described on pages 59-63. 

3. A revision of the teachers' certification laws, as indicated on 
pages 64-65. 

4. Revision of the Junior College Law (section 1750&, Political 
Code), to embody the suggestions contained on pages 79-81. 

5. Revision of the Apportionment Law (sections 1532 and 1858 of 
the Political Code) for elementary school funds, as suggested on 
pages 89-90. 

6. Revision of the Apportionment Law (sections 1760-1764 of the 
Political Code) for high school funds, as suggested on pages 93-94. 

7. Amendment of section 1859 of the Political Code, as recommended 
on page 90, to cliange the miuimnin term of school from six to eight 
montlis. 



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